After leaving his post as Arsenal’s head of recruitment in February, Sven Mislintat has done the diligent thing and kept his counsel.
It’s well known that the German, nicknamed ‘Diamond Eye’, was in line for the technical director position while Ivan Gazidis was at the club but when our former CEO left for AC Milan, Raul Sanllehi and Vinai Venkatesham decided to implement their own plan. They initially tried to recruit Monchi from AS Roma before getting their hands on Edu, who started in the role last week.
Mislintat, who scouted the likes of Robert Lewandowski, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Shinji Kagawa, Mats Hummels, Ousmane Dembele, Christian Pulisic and Jadon Sancho while at Borussia Dortmund, was linked with a number of high-profile clubs but eventually accepted an offer from VfB Stuttgart.
The 46-year-old’s decision raised a few eyebrows given Stuttgart were in the process of being relegated from the Bundesliga, but he has no regrets. In fact, he’s very excited about the chance to stamp his mark on the Mercedes Benz Arena outfit.
In an interview with 11Freunde, the best bits of which have been kindly translated for us by @LGAmbrose, Sven reflected on his time at the Emirates and his reason for leaving while also sharing a couple of other tasty morsels, including info on Sanllehi’s preferred means of doing business.
After 12 years at BVB, ultimately as ‘head of professional football’, then 15 months at Arsenal as ‘head of recruitment’, are you finally on the frontline, even if it is in the second tier?
Yes. In Dortmund, I prepared many decisions for (sporting director) Michael Zorc to the extent that he just had to sign them off, but of course, the responsibility ultimately lay with him and (chief executive) Aki Watzke. At Arsenal, I was already fully responsible for transfers, as there was no sporting director. But in England it isn’t usual [for the sporting director] to sit on the bench, so you’re much less visible.
That actually sounds rather comfortable, why did you leave London?
Last summer there were leadership changes at Arsenal. It had actually been agreed that I would become technical director, so then I would be around the team on a daily basis. But the new leadership had their own agenda and other candidates. On top of that, we had different approaches.
Like what?
Previously we had a strong systematic approach to transfers, a mixture of watching things live as well as quality data and video analysis – Arsenal actually owns their own data company. That meant that we acted independently, we knew about all markets and players in all positions that came into question. However, the new leadership work more strongly with what they are offered from clubs or agents through their own networks.
Instead of Barcelona or Man City, you’re now dealing with the likes of Kiel and Regensburg. Does that not feel like a step down?
Not at all. It’s the final step in my professional career, and being allowed to build a team gives me a lot of motivation. To be sporting director at a club like Stuttgart is a huge honour. I found the time at Arsenal superb but when we get 60,000 fans in the stadium at Stuttgart, it’s louder than the Emirates. How our fans supported us in the relegation play-off, despite the complete acoustic power of Union Berlin, was crazy. When there’s such a fan culture, you can’t say I’ve come to a smaller club.
Nonetheless, you’ve left the top table of the football world.
It’s just as enjoyable for me to get a Jadon Sancho from Man City or a Dan-Axel Zagadou from PSG as it is to get Atakan Karazor from Kiel or Mateo Klimowicz from Instituto Cordoba, I see huge potential to develop from them. Other than the league we are in, I see our situation similarly to Dortmund in 2006. We couldn’t buy from the top shelf then. Even with Arsenal, to start with, there was a mixed strategy. On the one hand, we signed experienced players like Sokratis and Aubameyang, who won the golden boot, and alongside them, we signed big young talents like Lucas Torreira and Mateo Guendouzi, who have enormous potential.
Good man
Such a shame
~I uhhhh believe we have a very good plan. A very good plan that relies completely on me.~
I don’t know how to type in Raul’s croaking tone, so ~ will have to do.
Letting Mislintat go is one of the most stupid decisions this decade. Let’s just image last season without Leno, Sokratis, Torreira, Gendouzi and Aubameyang.. Yes, that’s the spine of the team, and he had got them by this time last year. Now we’re waiting on what? While mr contact book 5 star dines in LA. It’s a joke. Sven had a plan for this club and he new how to get it done.
How can getting offered players by agents who just want to enrich themselves and their clients be better than seeing the players with our own eyes while matching that with proper data?
It sounds like we have just stepped back ten years.
Sadly, I think you’re right. Sanllehi in particular seems to be from a different era. And the thing is, I believe it’s only going to get worse. I assume at least some of the deals we are trying to make right now are still partially down to Sven’s work.
Hate to say that, but Sp*rs are miles ahead of us when it comes to recruitment.
The idea of Sanllehi relying solely on his “network” is absurd, but probably also true. This guy has made his bones on the back of his relationships with agents from the sound of it. Have to think there’s some serious conflicts of interest for him. Especially when you realize he has to be pals with a lot of these agents. The whole thing stinks
It actually is. It seems we went from a new school, technology-infused model back to an old school model of ‘who do I know and how much trust do I have in them?’. A real shame. It’s obvious Sven was at the cutting edge of a new approach that truly found diamonds in the roughest of roughs.
The people who got to the top did something different. I advise you enjoy watching Raul , Vinai , Emery and learn their approach, study them because your own job situation may not be so much different if you look beyond the glamour.
That’s not to mention the huge possibility for conflicts of interest in a setup like that.
“Previously we had a strong systematic approach to transfers, a mixture of watching things live as well as quality data and video analysis – Arsenal actually owns their own data company. That meant that we acted independently, we knew about all markets and players in all positions that came into question. However, the new leadership work more strongly with what they are offered from clubs or agents through their own networks.”
Like Sven’s approach more tbh.
Yeah, I’d imagine other clubs/agents often offer players because they’re not quite as good as needed… regardless, having a diverse approach is generally better than a singular one.
Agreed. If you base your recruitment decisions primarily on analytical data we never would have signed Paddy or Titi. You’ve got to be playing regularly for your club, in a system that suits to be flagged as worthy of consideration. Overmars was a steal when we signed him due to him returning from a crutiate ligament injury. Give me a big fat contacts book any day.
That’s funny cos people have complained about statdna for years. They’ve acted like it’s been holding us back. Strange that diamond eye seems to like it.
Everyone signs players based on agents and contacts. How you think Arsenal signed all of these ex Dortmund players.
It’s strange that arsenal knew about all of the players and markets but ended up with so many Dortmund players.
We needed quick fixes, proven players, mislinat delivered that. We also needed new blood, players ready to become stars, mislinat was on track to deliver that as well. Don’t see your point really
Me too, but wouldn’t both be great?
I thought one of reasons why they recruited a former Barcelona Head of football is to leverage his network on top of the structured data based recruitment system. I rather think, the inherent flexibility in a marriage of data based system and personal network leverage could be potentially more effective. Seems it all came down to a power struggle, Sven had more power with a data analysis based system and would have known that using personal networks effectively dilute his power source.
Definitely, the Raul method sounds like a road to ruin – buying players based on that highly reliable, trustworthy and benevolent group… football agents. I’m sure their contributions would never be self-serving or purely based on making themselves a few extra pieces of silver.
He got us Auba. This lot can’t capture a sleeping tortoise
And yet the first two signings we’ve made this window are Martinelli (scouted by Cagigao), Saliba (arsenal scouting) and are linked to Tierney who has been a target of our club scouts for years. Didn’t Ornstein or whoever else say that one of the issues with Sven was him taking credit for other people’s works? Let’s not totally disregard the sour grapes. Let’s also not forget that Edu is the technical director, not Raul, and there’s no suggestion Edu favours a “contacts based” approach.
Yep. “Unlike current system, Sven’s system was a strategic approach based on diverse analysis of data and not simply dependent on agents”, says Sven.
Also I want to sit on the bench to be more visible. How can people not hear the nuggets of narcissism there.
Sven is a different limited individual to the current Arsenal gang (The nice mad German guy).
The current Arsenal gang are ‘possibly’ limited to Sven (The ruthless cartel, cocky edge). The similarity they share is they both understand the importance of a Process, evident by Sven recognizing he can spot cheap potential even at Stuttgart and evidenced by Raul’s link to the agent Kia, Edu and other agents (who are actually masters at spotting under-appreciated talent). ?
I would definitely have preferred us to have kept Mislintat.
He’s got serious pedigree in identifying and securing talent before their values skyrocket.
I’d rather someone identify talent, than have Raul take the word of some agents about the pedigree of their clients.
The stadium noise – we need to create a better atmosphere. How do we do this?
No but instead we got abu from Brazil
Edu an invincible.
Interesting. I’ll just remember the last sentence and go to bed happy for once.
Also that ad with the ‘Ronaldo body’ effect T-shirt is starting to unnerve me, it’s always on this site!?
He really comes across as being unbelievably arrogant. His comment about Zorc is ridiculous. He reminds me of Damien Comolli a man who was the master of exaggerating his importance to arsenal and Wenger. I’m sure Mislintat had a say on Arsrnal and Dortmund’s signings but not the biggest.
It sounds like he wanted to be the star of the show and the new regime weren’t willing to do that. So he left in a sulk.
He is a star, and demands a creative freedom and substantial mandate to operate and deliver. I can see why it didn’t work out, but he has the track record to motivate a demanding attitude; he knows what he can do, and what setting he needs to deliver
Arsenal will miss Mislintat. Venkatesham and Sanllehi don’t know what they are doing. A pair of Wallys.
For some reason this makes me feel like Arsenal isn’t headed down the toilet. For one the cynic in me believes the technical director role would include a pay rise and more prominence. Also I don’t see what wrong with leveraging your contacts if you have a guy like Sanlehi who has vast experience/contacts. I fully respect ‘golden eye’ but he seems like one of those my way or you’re stupid and wrong kind of genius’ and Wenger has turned me off that for a little while. Sven is great but I don’t think he is synonymous with success.
Sanlehi came from Barcelona, where they have a little bit of money. Sven came to us from Dortmund, and seems pretty stoked about being at Stuttgart, who operate on a budget. He helped Dortmund win titles and make a profit. What model do you think better suits Arsenal?
It’s too bad genius rubs people the wrong way around here.
How is using data and then live-observation compatible with a “do it my way” approach? To weigh data against one’s own observations already implies being ready to question one’s own assumptions. It’s a method also far more likely to uncover the next gem — player bought for next to nothing and then sold for astronomical amounts.
You’re conflating criticism of whatever strategy Mislintat chooses to deploy, with the way he actually goes about employing it in a hierarchical club structure.
Clearly a talented guy, but after banning him from the training ground Dortmund moved on without him, and not a single top European club jumped at the chance to hire after him after he left us. That’s a pretty big red flag.
Just curious, but how do you know no top European club tried to hire him?
That is a HUGE red flag.
Bayern Munich shortly entertained idea of employing him but abandoned it quickly after learning that his ‘character traits’ that got him fired from Dortmund have been much of the reason for his treatment at Arsenal too.
For as much as I dislike Sanlehi I prefer to believe that he knows much more than I do about running football clubs.
It is only ONE season since we parted with Wenger, so we might as well give those people in charge of club a chance before we write them of.
You are a joker, with Rauls contacts, how many gems has he unearthed, how can u leave a man, that have discovered talents worth about 1bn pounds go, in few years time if guendouzi keep working hard, do you know how much he will be worth, I see him joining Madrid or Barcelona for 100+million pounds. Do you know the current value of j. Sancho and o. Dembele……… Oh oh arsenal what a mistake We just wasted 3m pounds on d. Suarez. Even the almighty Arsene, was in shock of misslintats ability, nothing gives mislintat fulfilment like finding gems, I… Read more »
“The new leadership work more strongly with what they are offered from clubs or agents through their own networks “- this pretty much explains how they got Suarez on loan last season. I wonder for this season how many heads it take to decide which player to sign and how timely it become to agree on the price to offer. This may have already cost us Zaha and next, maybe Tierney.
Meanwhile even West Ham and Leicester are spending 40 odd million on players.
At least they’re buying players and attempting to improve their sides…
Suarez on loan last season, so what? Saliba, Martinelli, Tierney and Everton don’t seem like “contacts based” transfer targets
Didn’t we do the same with Kim kalstrom a few seasons back when Raul was most certainly not around? Look I’d like to sit on the fence and watch this on a bit (my criticism or praise for the Raul n edu train would come in after the transfer window). Still let us not forget or be mistaken Raul wasn’t brought on for talent scouting and grooming, he was hired to bring sustainable success with a huge regards to quality of market value. This is what he’s working on for Arsenal, whether he is successful or not remains to be… Read more »
I can remember the old days. When Don Howe etc in their Flat caps would be off in some backwater scouting in the rain, sleet etc. I’m sure even Fergie used to do that. Maybe we should present Wenger with a Flat cap & hire him!
Gazidis gets a lot of stick on here and a huge amount from Blogs, and I understand that someone so unambiguously cooperate is basically impossible to like (because he reminds us of what football has become), but I must admit I’m more dubious of Sanllehi than I ever was of Gazidis. By the time Gazidis left he had put in place a structure that fans were generally in favour of, and at the heart of that was Mislintat. I don’t think anyone can reasonably cheer the exit of Gazidis while bemoaning the exit of Mislintat considering one led so directly… Read more »
“the new leadership work more strongly with what they are offered from clubs or agents through their own networks.” UGH! I HATE this sort of thing, the “Old Boys Club” sort of thing. I’m not a fan of Raul at all, he seems like someone that fits right in at FIFA. This is a man that through “his contacts” we sold him the likes of Song, Vermalaen, Hleb etc. A systematic approach would’ve told him not to do that. He’s also a man that got the boot from Barca due to the dodgy signing of Neymar. It’s why I’m not… Read more »
This is a very tactful interview. Good for him.
Also interesting that according to The Independent, Emery’s demand for Suarez was that he would be a key for out big push for the CL, Sven disagreed and in fact wanted that chance to be given to ESR and Saka it seems, but the club (aka Raul) chose Emery, and we all know how that worked out.
Also pushed for Nadiem Amiri, who Leicester are now about to sign.
Be afraid, lads. Be very afraid.
I’m actually concerned the spirit of the club I knew and loved is almost essentially gone, replaced by the seedy FIFA-sorts (Raul) running the show, with their shadowy deals and no morals.
Yeah, the departure of Sven so suddenly did not bode well for our future, and it’s a shame to see Arsenal slam the gear into reverse while we’re moving forward.
Not just Sven, but also Darren Burgess.
Much like the rest of the world
We’ve just bought two highly rated teenage prospects and are targeting a 22 year old left back and a 23 year old Brazilian wide player. Wind it in.
If that’s true then why was Sven also supposedly pushing for Carrasco and perisic?
Mislintat comes across well here. He was pretty respectful towards the club. I just hope Edu makes us not regret his departure.
i don’t know about this tbh. he does come across well but the role mislintat held, and edu now have seems vague from my point of view(or maybe im not able to understand). Mislintat choosed the VFB because he felt he could actually bring in his visions while at Arsenal he found himself in a hierachy where he might not able to realize his concept. I think i read that previously from mr blogs, putting the spotlight and pressure on edu(“the final jigsaw piece yada yada”-jKroenke) seems kinda wrong. i hope he bring in something but don’t know what I… Read more »
Of course.
I mean what should Josh Kroenke say? “Nah, Edu isn’t the best sporting director available but we can just afford this guy”?
Nah but a bit less dramatic choosen words would be ok for me.
Don’t worry lads, Raul will get his little black book out on deadline day and we ‘re gonna #outsmartthemarket 😉
Let’s just hope someone has a quiet word to make sure he knows when the window closes!
Sven is known as a telent spotter for established talents. His key attribute is knowing how far that potential will actually be realised. This basically means that the players he finds are already established as important squad players for their teams and require larger transfer fees. Raul will always be the company man and tow the line of the Kroenkes. So if we have a ridiculously small budget of 40m ( tbh even if this is gamesmanship it is embarrassing going forward) then Sven wouldnt be able to maximise his talent. A Sven sporting director would therefore be at odds… Read more »
This will likely be Emery’s last season in charge. We’ll finish 6th this season and then he’ll be replaced. Allegri will be available next summer. Not sure why Josh seems to think Edu is the final piece of a jigsaw – It’s revolving doors at the Emirates constantly. The jury is still out on Raul and Vikram, I’m far from convinced they are the right pieces for the Arsenal jigsaw. Josh also talks about Arsenal DNA but we’ve lost some very good and honest men recently in Ramsey, Cech, Mislintat, and soon to be Koscielny. No idea what quality of… Read more »
All good points but can we just drop the DNA thing? Leave that silly term to Barcelona and their bullshit media lackeys.
Allegri available to Arsenal?! You’re having a laugh mate…not with the Kroenke parasites in charge.
We’re finishing top 4 this season. If you think otherwise you’re out of your mind.
I am Vikram and I don’t know why the jury is still out on me.
Seriously though Sven comes across as a guy with a good vision on how to build teams on a budget. Too bad we couldn’t hang on to him.
Hugely disappointed when he left as he’s exactly what we need in these financially constrained times.
On another note. The comment about the stadium noise is spot on. Unless a top opponent is in town, the Emirates is a sterile snooze fest. Worst atmosphere in the PL. I went to a Palace v Sunderland match a couple years back, and the home Palace supporters were way louder than anything you get at AFC on any given weekend.
honest question: is it because of the Emirates buildup or the crowd or both? Was there only once and in complete shambles. isn’t it the same at alot of huge club like manc utd, chelski, juventus, real where not only supporters but also a lot of tourist attraction is there? Ive been at some fields across europe from 1st to 4th tier and watch a lot on telly but tbh never witnessed, that people leave the stadium with an 1 goal difference at minute 85, outside the PL if it isn’t a kind of organized protest. Baffels me every time.
Arsenal fans have always been quieter than the rest.
The Emirates is a luxury cinema. The seats are set far back from the field to allow sun onto the pitch.
Our enemies up the road at Rotten Ham have built an intimidating stadium in the old British style.. Now we gonna look like an old age home….the Arsenal fans at the stadium have work to do. anyway I love watching Rotten Ham Cold Feet get beat at their lovely new stadium
Regarding the stadium noise – In my opinion it’s route cause is the disengagement of fans, the lack of clear purpose and direction from the club which is contributing to a very unhappy and fractured fanbase combined with a poorly thought out matchday experience – think playing Sweet Caroline every week.. like seriously???!!! The sad thing about it for me is that I think things are about to find new levels of toxicity at the Emirates this year, and that it will reach a breaking point worse than ever before when we inevitably end up making the same mistakes as… Read more »
I personally believe the more expensive the tickets, the more sterile the environment. I don’t buy the big club claim…went to a Bayern v Wolfsburg match a few years back and it was rocking. Even when Bayern were up 3-0 at the close of the match. Tickets to that match were 10 euro. Additionally they have a proper supporter section there. Also went to a Barca match that had plenty of flavor
Sven Mislintat’s departure is a huge blow for Arsenal. I actually feel sorry for him.
Yes, he is a lone wolf, a little bit arrogant but his ability to scout players is undisputed.
Edu Gaspar can help us in the South America market but i highly doubt he has any knowledge about the European one.
Also i really like Mislintat’s action last year. Ok, so we have a 50 mil to spend? Fine! Bang! Bang! Bang! There you have it. Torreira, Sokratis, Leno for quality players. Guendozi for the future. Lichtsteiner for… free.
I don’t agree with going Raul’s route entirely but I also remember fans scoffing Sven’s picks as merely low-hanging fruits from his Dortmund contacts. Yet those seem to be forgotten now.
The data vs relationship building battle is going on in boardrooms across the world, including my own company. I am firmly on the side of the former. Such a shame for Arsenal. I hope Sven returns one day.
It needs to be both. It seems like Mislintat had both – Aubameyang and Sokratis were ‘relationship’ transfers, while Torreira was more based on the data. All of them have done well.
We’ve replaced that with some wannabe shot-caller. Dani Ceballos on loan with no option to buy, ffs, hang your head Raul.
@thw14, it is Real’s prerogative to include the option to buy. We are not the stronger party in this negotiation for Ceballos. If Real doesn’t want to include it, we are not in a position to insist. Grow up.
That’s three blanket un-supported statements, none of them grounded in any recognizable understanding of negotiation. Or the organization’s past record on this front.
At least you didn’t slag off a fellow fan, though, to get in that ace defense of Raul. Congratulations. I’m sure he’s grateful.
What a crybaby.
Raul is terrible. He was terrible at Barcelona and he will most likely be a disaster for us as well. We definitely got rid of the wrong one of those two.
What he said about the 60,000 fans thing. Hate to say it, but it’s true. Being a bit more vocal, especially when we need it most, can make a big difference.
Hard to be vocal when you have owners and board executives that are killing us and taking the passion away from the fans……how do you expect fans to be vocal when players like Ozil,mustafi and xhaka do the unbearable constantly
Strange.newcastle have a worst owner and their fan still make noise at match day.
let s face it arsenal fan have never been the most vocal even at highbury
But dont worry they are very local when he come to show their face at AFTV or any social media.
Nice too see some youngster actually do something about it even talking with the club.hope they get successfully instead crying on the internet about atmosphere at the emirate
Didn’t realise how many people here support Mislintat over Arsenal
To be honest i liked him. Hence i was sad to see him leave. His story is no different than any of us who look for new experience and not be just stuck at just one position. Stats DNA is horrible i was more confident of Sven’s team doing things right. The biggest monster in all of this is Ivan Gazidis, i hope you really suck at Milan and world gets to know you ain’t deemed worthy of running anything. I am still unsure about Raul, given that he came from Barcelona and his work culture. Vinai has been in… Read more »
“…But not much criticism on Vinai” but still criticised him nonetheless.
” I found the time at Arsenal superb but when we get 60,000 fans in the stadium at Stuttgart, it’s louder than the Emirates. How our fans supported us in the relegation play-off, despite the complete acoustic power of Union Berlin, was crazy. When there’s such a fan culture, you can’t say I’ve come to a smaller club” That touched me the most to be honest…if mislintat could have worries about our obvious lack of support in the stadium then how does the players playing in it see it.. That could be the worst feeling…..that’s where the problem is coming… Read more »
Meh.
Talking transfert, this is also a good read
https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/news/arsenal-mesut-ozil-contract-details-16582654
Love this, thankyou Alex a bit of perspective. Ozil was going to leave on a free and would cost at least £40-£50 mil to replace, £10+ mil a year and wages of new player (over a 4 year contract). Ozil has 20 million twitter followers which is massive for marketing and exposure. He’s may have been expensive to us this last season, due to all the problems, but a happy effective Ozil was/ is well worth the salary. Only the Arsenal management know all the in’s and out’s, but a happy, effective Ozil, giving us 20 assists a season is… Read more »
It doesn’t appear to have be handled well by Arsenal, particularly as we were then seen to scramble around for a replacement (Monchi) only to be snubbed. The worst look for any club is to have problems both on the pitch and off it – not a “double” that we’ll want to repeat. The good news is that things have since gone more smoothly regarding recruitment of backroom staff, signing up of the likes of Edu etc.. but only time – and results, of course – will tell.
I feel that going with Sanlheli (or whatever his name) is going with a retrograde system. A system of whisky and cigars, where dinosaurs in suits self congratulate themselves, where you play the game of agents, a system of bribery. All we’ll see.
I like our “leadership” team far less after reading this.
The way Sven portrays it, the situation is not ideal. But let’s be honest, we should take what he says with lashings of salt.
Playing Devil’s advocate here, he got chucked out of Dortmund for pissing off… everyone, pushed out of Arsenal because they wanted someone else and ended up at a club in the German league 2. We also hear a lot that he is very chatty about how involved he is with scouting well regarded players whilst others depute his level of involvement. Just giving the other side, its very vogue to bash the Arsenal hierarchy right now, but its not like we chucked a universally loved and sought after guy. If he was as good as everyone says surely he would… Read more »
Isn’t Stuttgart a big club just mismanaged? I think in Germany one of those clubs with huge potential but always mismanaged. He was at Dortmund long enough wasn’t he? To say he left because he kissed everyone off there is ridiculous. They chose tuchel over him basically.
I think it was a huge mistake. He’s the type of director we needed. Project rebuild for the club.
Kse sucks
Funny thing is the same set of people slagging off STATDNA are now praising it in the comments . Let’s not forget we got Mkhi due to his recommendation when we could have used the money from sanchez to get someone else
This guy doesn’t half believe his own hype, does he?
Huge loss
Huge loss – we will struggle to replace him.
The cult of mislintat is arguably one of the funnier aspects of arsenal fandom in recent seasons
Yep as bad as David Dein our lord saviour.the guy who sold us to our actual owner
What a waste. Get that useless #EmeryOut and other slime out now.
Apparently Saliba is progressing https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11670/11766234/arsenal-agree-deal-with-saint-etienne-to-sign-william-saliba
It’s a shame that one article seems to have sent a majority of the fans on here into a negative spiral. A shame that negativity, in general, seems to gain more traction amongst fans but I guess that’s how the world is. Guys, let’s not forget that if we do manage to sign Saliba, Tierny and Everton (along with the already acquired and seemingly excellent, Martinelli), this can truly be classified as a very good transfer window. Sure, our defence still has problems but people seem to forget that we have our very own Rob Holding coming back as is… Read more »
I guess the reason why fans are down is that, honestly, there’s quite a lot to be down about, isn’t there. We are in a pretty dire financial position (see the excellent report from The Arsenal Supporter’s Trust if you doubt that). We have several over-paid, under-performing, players that we simply can’t offload because, surprise, surprise, nobody wants to buy them. Our efforts in the transfer market have come to almost nothing so far. You say “… if we do manage to sign Saliba, Tierny and Everton … “. Well, were we to get Saliba he’ll play for his current… Read more »
I absolutely see your point re the finances but that was a result of years of financial mismanagement which cannot be reasonably rectified in a short span of time. Vinay addressed this very issue in that one interview he did with Raul and I can appreciate the fact that it’s not going to be an easy task. We are essentially building from the ground up with some hints of a promising foundation that’s already in place. Criticism is absolutely fine but the constant berating of club officials and players can only make their work harder. I guess, I’m that overtly… Read more »
While we have more than few reasons to loose it, I agree truly supporting and loving a club should instill somesufficient pride and longing to be part of the next season journey to avoid going negative at every chance to do so. I am like a ping pong ball between the 2, at times saved by catching hilarious comments made by fellow gooners, keep that spirit up boys, we are in this for life
mate, stop talking shit, have you seen anyone in life who deliberately wants to fail? Not even the devil, mistakes and wrong judgement does, sanlehis part looks failure over it, the best way to judge sometimes is to look at antecedents…… Let’s look at the antecedent of mislintat in talent spotting and that of sanlehi, I need ur answers
I’m sad to say it, but he’s absolutely right about the fan loudness. Emirates stadium is the Library mk.2.
To me it is really odd how the economics of sport really differs from the US to Europe. Kroenke and Co still haven’t figured out European Football. In the NBA, NFL, MLS, and NHL have salary caps and profits are shared between the league. So in turn owners can get rich regardless of the teams performance. Even teams like the LA Clippers sold for over a billion and they have never won a NBA championship. The ambition of ownership is arbitrary. Fans want comfort. There are very few teams where fans are willing to sacrifice that. Hence the Kroenkes aren’t… Read more »
This is one thing I hate about American sports. The fact there is no urgency with winning trophies. All owners talk the talk but how many really want to win trophies? I think most are casual fans that see it as an investment and trophies are just a bonus. American sports rewards bad owners, dumb decision makers such as GM and coaches with high draft picks. Where eventually you being soo bad for a number of years you have to get good with a an accumulation of high draft picks over the years. Where with arsenal eventually the downward spiral… Read more »
I agree 100%. I love the relegation system. I would recommend Arsenal fans do a little research on exactly what Stan did to the St. Louis Rams fans and the team before he left. Also the deals he is getting with his new Rams stadium. If you haven’t already got on board with the #wecaredoyou movement you will after.
Zorc is the real genius. This fellow is a scout like Caggagio. A good one but the permanence of Dortmund’s continued good recruitment policy is down more to Zorc. Frankly Mslintat struggled to help us instead went for short term quick fixes with convenience to his old contacts rather than what we really needed strategically and tacticlally. Case in point Mhkitaryan. We should have spent on Mahrez that January, it would have given Wenger the push for minimum top four and the Algerian was still priced low with interest to leave before City came in for him and drove cost… Read more »
Given mislinats fantastic record, and his methods at least in my view better suited for a club and team that genuinely needs to rebuild, I congratulate Stuttgart and feel a bit of fear our “new” management is taking our club backwards. It can’t be sound to build our recruitment Ability around the network of 1 person, sounds a bit desperate. Edu is hopefully bring something fresh here
Top Technical/Sporting directors – Luis Campos, Ralf Ragnick, Michael Zorc, Monchi. Mslintat is a glorified scout. Raul was a “director of football relations” I’m struggling to undertand how our own system works. There’s also Vinai involved presumably on more business end stuff. But I think Raul and Mslintat got in the way of each other and Sven has been mediocre at best with recruitment whilst Raul overloaded our wage bill (or at least did not clear it enough) leading to ‘panic loan’ era last January. with the status of Emery, I don’t think we have a pure continental system rather… Read more »
Let’s be realistic for a moment. We’re reacting to an interview that Sven gave and so all the comments will be biased towards Event’s ideas and way of thinking. Let’s not forget that this is a guy who clearly has a large ego and high opinion of himself. Let’s also not forget that this guy was banned from Dortmunds training ground by Thomas Tuchel when they both worked at Dortmund together, so you could argue that he’s not the easiest person to work with and that probably doesn’t lend itself well in a time that we need to be more… Read more »
Hmmmmn. It just used to be David Dein. Alone. Simple. Unknown. And he got us Arsene who! Mislintat was a dream, the dream. And we know what happens to dreams! Edu is likeable and one of our own. He’s a winner. An invincible. Let’s wish him well and support him. 3rd time lucky Arsenal? You bet!