Arsenal: Sven Mislintat mess must be resolved before crucial summer

Head of Recruitment Sven Mislintat is set to leave Arsenal after just over a year and one summer window. A resolution needs to come before a crucial summer transfer window in just a few months’ time.

If reports are to be believed, Arsenal’s heralded Head of Recruitment Sven Mislintat is set to leave the club after just over a year. Mislintat joined the Gunners in November 2017 but may be out the door before seeing his second summer transfer window, a window that Arsenal need to prepare for without him if they want to compete at the top table once again.

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‘Diamond Eye’ was depicted as a key cog of the post- Arsene Wenger era, reportedly playing a critical role alongside Raul Sanllehi and Ivan Gazidis in choosing Emery as Wenger’s successor. He also managed to uncover talents such as Matteo Guendouzi, Lucas Torreira and Konstantinos Mavrapanos, players that should play a vital role in the second half of the season.

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Despite these successes, it is difficult to truly judge the German’s work in London, perhaps because he only had two transfers windows in which to operate. There remain question marks within the fanbase over Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Bernd Leno and Sokratis, while Stephan Lichtsteiner has looked past his best. And although Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has proved a major hit, it hardly took a ‘diamond eye’ to see that he would be a decent addition.

The solution now, for the club, players and fans, is to not spiral over bad news that comes during a pretty lousy week. Arsenal have clearly been sounding out Edu for the role of Technical Director and understand that losing Mislintat is a potential by-product of making that move.

Edu has forged a relatively impressive CV on the operations side and the board perhaps feel he possesses insight that they are thus far lacking. The club realise that Mislintat is one of the best scouts in the world, but I would hope that even in just a year he would have helped improve the scouting structure and modernised their approach. Since he left Germany, Dortmund have managed to sign Manuel Akanji, Jadon Sancho and Abdou Diallo for next to nothing.

Having said all this, under the current ownership, it is difficult to understand the reasoning behind many decisions and the loss of Mislintat could just be another sign that the footballing side of the business is not Stan Kroenke’s priority.

Mislintat is also receiving admiring glances from Bayern Munich, a club that is more likely to give him proper financial backing in the transfer market. Whatever way you dress it up, it could just be Sven saying he has had enough of being told the club can only afford loan deals.

Whether you are coming from an optimistic or cynical perspective, the most important thing for Arsenal is to have this situation resolved as soon as possible. This means having someone take on Misliantat’s duties immediately. The January transfer window is ongoing and the summer will not be long coming. Plans need to be put in place, and Mislintat was meant to be the man to install them.

Arsenal need to be prepared to make the improvements that the squad is desperate for. If this becomes a drawn-out saga that can only be damaging for their future prospects.