Arsenal: Konstantinos Mavropanos is Sven Mislintat’s only hope

Arsenal brought in Sven Mislintat to do what he did with Borussia Dortmund on a bigger scale, but thus far, he only has one man to rely on.

There are several reasons why Arsenal fans are so optimistic going into this new era at the club, but I have to believe that tops among all those reasons is the brain trust that is in charge of everything. Sven Mislintat, the man that kept a steady supply of lesser-known talents coming into Dortmund, nearly all of whom because stars, is one such font of excitement.

He’s had one year to work his magic now at Arsenal, and a lot of his worth will be judged after this transfer window, in which he has the unenviable task of finding players relevant to Arsenal’s first team without the ability to pay them gobs of money and without the lure of Champions League or Arsene Wenger.

We have yet to see how he approaches it, but as of right now, Caglar Soyuncu is his cash cow, as he has been a huge proponent of the Turkish defender since Mislintat’s days at Dortmund. There are a few other murmurings, but Soyuncu is the only serious one this far.

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Other than that, a recent opinion piece on ESPN is pretty spot on – the Gunners need more from him than the signing of former Dortmund players. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining, but I can assure you that Mislintat was not brought in so that he could pick at the pieces of his old team.

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He was brought into replicate the results of his scouting prowess at his old team. And again, it’s fairly early on in the process, and there’s no reason to be super critical, but this summer will say a lot about what he can do in this bigger capacity that he is in.

Because right now, it’s all Konstantino Mavropanos. That is the Mislintat man on the squad right now. Other than him, it has been all established, former Dortmund players that have become Mislintat’s prerogative.

Adding Sokratis is undoubtedly another move heavily influenced by having their former scout.

Eventually, that well will dry up and it will be up to Mislintat to identify players like he used to – players that aren’t already well-known from their days with Dortmund, after being discovered by him previously.

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There’s plenty of time. I’d just like to start seeing more such players linked to Arsenal – players like Soyuncu – rather than a fresh helping of aged veterans that are supposed to be the opposite of what the club is all about.