"Borussia Dortmund are set to lose their chief scout Sven Mislintat to Arsenal, but the move is not yet formally agreed. He has been at Dortmund since 2007 and played a key role in the club signing Ousmane Dembele, Lewandowski, Lukasz Piszczek , Marco Reus, Mats Hummels and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Mislintat previously fell out with former Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel, who vetoed the signing of Oliver Torres, on which the chief scout had been working. Tuchel even banned Mislintat from Dortmund's training ground". Personally I think this is the best signing Arsenal could make for our long terms success.The guys track record speaks for itself. The ability to identify and sign the best up and coming talent is the only way we can truly compete with the top Europeans Clubs. This would be a great move for Arsenal IMO.
Yeah the list is pretty incredible particularly when you consider the prices Dortmund paid for them Nicknamed the 'Diamond eye' by the German press... Lewandoski Marco Reus Gundogan Mats Hummels Shinji Kagawa Henrikh Mkhitaryan Neven Subotic Lukasz Piszczek Raphael Guerreiro Aubamayang Ousmane Dembele ESPN and Skysports running the story now. Fans dont tend to get excited by backroom appointments - but this really looks like a great signing.
We've always had a decent scouting system, but in recent years we've missed out on players because they've been snapped up by other clubs and then had an astronomical price tag slapped on their heads. Hopefully Mislintat can help us unearth that talent before other clubs come sniffing
We will see every single behind-the-scenes position replaced, and Arsene will still be here. Maybe its just me, but when you have to change every single thing about yourself for a girl, maybe its the girl that isnt right for you...
Ha true. I think this is a great move for the Club. We used to be excellent and identifying top class talent but IMO we have gotten worse over the years. We also seem to screw up the negotiations on many a transfer target - hopefully this is set to change now.
I think the club is finally putting in the pieces to replace Wenger. I think as an executive they have decided that they don't want to be as dependant on one man to run the club in future. I think it will also allow them to hire a slightly less experienced manager who can focus on football and not on everything else. For example someone like van Bronkhorst, or Eddie Howe. The problem hiring these younger managers in the past is that they don't have the experience or knowledge required to take on all the additional contract, youth, personnel, media, scouting, financial and promotional activities that exist at a top European club. Yes, smaller clubs have these activities but they don't pose as big of a burden as they do somewhere like Arsenal, where you can quite easily have 20 or 30 players being poached by other clubs every year and wanting to renegotiate their contract. I know a lot of people criticize the way the club is run, but I do think they have sensibly looked at United after Ferguson, and decided that they don't want to move to the popular model where big clubs depend on a revolving door of managerial superstars. Hopefully, this will pay off in the long run and we can get a good footballing manager, who doesn't need to speak 6 languages, or have an economics degree.
Wenger brought A LOT of success on the pitch and financially off it. Arsenal has effectively been Arsene FC for many years and it's hard to argue against it if you're a shareholder or Board member. But we will find out exactly hard it will be when Wenger goes, not because he's indispensable, but our management is ill prepared to deal with such a huge change like this. They've been babied by Wenger for so long that they've forgotten how to make effective FOOTBALLING decisions.
Wenger is not indispensable, but without a change in the way the club is managed, he would have to be replaced with another of the "Greats". If we spread the load, perhaps we can get a manager that knows about football, and isn't just about buying the most expensive players. I accept that our management are ill-prepared, but all clubs are ill-prepared when one of these big managers leaves, that is the point I was making. And I am not sure how you can criticize them for being ill-prepared, while they are obviously preparing. I realize that the fan-base wanted Wenger gone, but I don't think until now, management really considered it a possibility. Before Wenger ALL clubs were run by a managerial dictatorship, and most still are, unless the owner/chairman gets involved like Newcastle or West Ham (hardly a positive), so I don't think our management is better or worse than any other club in this regard.
Arsenal appoint Raul Sanllehi as Barcelona director of football resigns after 15 years at club http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...point-Barcelona-chief-Raul-Sanllehi-week.html Seems as though he'll be brought in to work alongside Mislintat to secure transfers. Good move, we now have some top talent from Dortmund and Barca working on our transfers.
Arsenal will announce the arrival of former Barcelona director of football Raul Sanllehi on Tuesday as part of the restructuring of its scouting and recruitment. Sanllehi was due to leave Barcelona on Friday but he signed off on Monday after 15 years service at the club and will now move in alongside manager Arsene Wenger.
Arsenal fans need to get more excited about this. Arsenal appear to be putting together a quality set-up to take the club forward when Arsene retires: Barcelona have been arguably the most successful European Club over the last 10-12 years and have played quality attacking football in the process. We are set to appoint their director of football. (During his time at Barcelona the Club won 4 x Champions League titles and 7 League titles.) Dortmund have consistently unearthed World Class talent (and sold them on) for bargain prices in an incredibly competitive market. We have just signed the man responsible for this. (Lewandoski, Marco Reus, Gundogan, Mats Hummels, Shinji Kagawa, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Neven Subotic, Lukasz Piszczek, Raphael Guerreiro, Aubamayang, Ousmane Dembele - the list of players he signed at Dortmund is crazy) I couldn't have picked better signings for either position. Super impressed by the appointments TBH. Now all we need is an Allegri or Simeone.
Yes, agree with most of this....... but..... when you say you couldn't have picked better signings for either job? Had you actually heard of either of these two before they joined us? Would 99% of the population be able to choose good scouts for example?
Ha No. Cant say I had.. but then the manager is always the 'front man' and the backroom staff are generally kept under the radar. Im just basing my opinions on their credentials. In the case of Minslitat - I have always admired Dortmunds recruitment policy. (The fact they consistently sell these players on most be very frustrating for the fans though.)
This latest development is a positive step in the right direction. This is the kind of thing that we should be doing with Wenger's inevitable leaving.
