Arsenal: Sven Mislintat departure has nothing to do with money

Sven Mislintat is reportedly on the verge of exiting Arsenal after just one year and one summer transfer window at the club. His departure is not fuelled by a lack of funds, as some have suggested.

Under Stan Kroenke, Arsenal are unwaveringly sticking to a self-sustainable model. They have never tried to convince anyone that they would not. When Ivan Gazidis was asked in the summer how much money would be available to spend, he simply replied ‘you know how we work here’, telling the journalists that they could go and look at the financial figures of the club and work it out for themselves.

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While the model has its flaws, it is an admirable one, especially in the increasingly money-crazed modern game. And Kroenke, to his credit, and the club should be praised for the unashamed honesty of their plan. Unlike Mike Ashley at Newcastle United, they never told anyone that they would invest heavily and not. The self-sustainable system was always the plan.

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When Sven Mislintat was hired just over a year ago, that same plan was still in full force. It may have been Arsene Wenger in charge of it at the time, but the transfer fees paid, the wages dished out, and the overall investment of the club would be determined by the revenue earned. That is nothing new, and I am sure that Mislintat, as the new Head of Recruitment, was made quite aware of the restricted budget that he would be working with.

So when news broke this week that the Swede is looking to leave the club, reportedly with Bayern Munich sniffing around his services, the suggestion that he was wanting to leave because Arsenal could not afford the signings he proposed — Unai Emery last week admitted that no permanent signings can be made in January because of financial restrictions — is a false one.

Throughout his time at Borussia Dortmund, where he made his name as a brilliant scout, eventually being come to be known as ‘Diamond Eye’ for his acute eye for talent, Mislintat worked with extremely tight budgets. The self-sustainable model was a very comparable one to that at Arsenal, with players brought in for cheap and then sold on for profit.

Mislintat is very much used to working on a budget. This is not new for him, and to think that it was a surprise when he realised, after spending £70 million in the summer when Arsenal only planned to spend £50 million, that there was no more money to spend is ridiculous. Mislintat was quite aware of what he had to work with, I am sure of it.

Now, that does not mean that transfer targets that he put forward were not ignored. I would also be fairly confident that Mislintat’s proposals have at some point been rejected in a manner that he feels is disrespectful and lacking in the necessary commitment due diligence. But if any of them were properly researched and then turned down because of financial restrictions, Mislintat would understand.

So yes, Mislintat leaving is frustrating. But, for once, this isn’t the fault of lack of investment — there are plenty of things that it should take the blame for, however. This is simply a break down in relationship. Money is not a part of the problem.