Arsenal’s former Head of Recruitment, Sven Mislintat, has confirmed that Stuttgart – where he is now Technical Director – would like to keep on-loan defender Dinos Mavropanos for another season.
The centre-half was brought to North London by the German shortly after he began his role with the Gunners, and while he was expected to go out on loan immediately, he impressed Arsene Wenger sufficiently to keep him around.
He made three Premier League appearances towards the end of that season, picking up a red card in one of them, but in an injury hit first campaign under Unai Emery, he played just four times (three starts, and one sub).
He added just one Europa League appearance in 2019-20, before being loaned to FC Nuremberg in Bundesliga 2. This season, injuries have been a problem again, although has made 13 league appearance for Stuttgart, as well as one in the cup.
In an interview with The Athletic, in which Mislintat talks about his time at Arsenal, he sounded a positive note about the 22 year old, and hoped his loan spell there could be extended for another season.
“He has all the hardware and all the software to be a great defender,” he said.
“He has been unfortunate, he’s got a lot of injuries. It’s important for us to get him fully match fit.
“If he can stabilise physically, he’s undoubtedly a Bundesliga-level defender. He’s one of the fastest centre-backs in the league alongside Dayot Upamecano.
“A super guy, a model professional. You have to admire his energy, all the strength it took to get over his injuries.
“We’re super happy that he’s been a regular starter in recent weeks. We would like to keep him on loan one more season, if possible.
“But that will be down to Arsenal.”
Dinos has a contract with us until 2023, so even if we did decided to loan him next year, it’d give us time to make a final decision.
Read the full interview here if you’re a subscriber to The Athletic.
I’d keep him on loan, if we have Mari, Gabriel, Holding and either Luiz or Saliba we are well covered.
Hopefully he can come back and challenge after next season.
He’s been really highly regard in Germany this season (where I live). He’s really come on this season. Was looking very close to the end when he went on loan to Nuremberg. Personally, I’d rather have him in place of David Luiz. Holding has had a fantastic season, but Arteta just loves him some Luiz. Also still have Chambers and Saliba and Gabriel and Mari. A lot of numbers and pretty good quality too. Probably another season on loan is good at Stuttgart would benefit, but I don’t want to see us using Luiz like we are for another year.… Read more »
Arteta loves Luiz because Holding can’t playmate from the back. His distribution is average. That’s why Arteta bought Gabriel because of his distribution he’s looking for a right CB like Gabriel and I think That’s Mavropanos because he can play from the back and has better distribution than Holding and Chambers. If he’s ready I think He can be a starting right CB alongside Gabriel and I would keep Chambers as cover at RB and sell Bellerin to raise money.
Agreed, although he is no substitute for Luiz’s experience, I’ve like Dinos since I first saw him.
Has a huge frame that does not get messed around, even at his age. I do feel if we lose him it’ll be a Gnabry situation. He has got real talent, and was never given a fair run when here, that red card against Leicester etc.. Saw him against Mustafi’s Schalke the last week and it was night and day between them. New deal and another loan is best for all involved.
Just watched a video of him vs Schalke. The thing I liked was that he looks very 2-footed.
I don’t think Arteta like Saliba or rates him. I will be really surprised if Saliba is in the squad next season. I have a feeling Arteta would sell him or loan him again. Same as Mavropanos which would be a shame. I think Mavropanos can do a job as he has better distribution and pace than Luiz Holding and Chambers. Sven Minslitat said Mavropanos is the 2nd fastest CB in Bundesliga only behind Upamecano. I knew he was mobile for a CB especially for someone 6’4 tall I didn’t know he was that fast which is a good. Mavropanos… Read more »
If we’re loaning him out again, we should only do it on the condition that he signs a 12 month extension, and ideally we should keep him in the country
He’s a player on the way up, we need to protect our investment, rather than putting ourselves in a position where we’ve got an asset with only 12 months remaining in 12 months time
100% agreed. Best scenario would be to extend him, loan him out in PL and see how he does there.
We have four decent right CB options for next season with him, Holding, Chambers and Saliba, we won’t be able to give game time to everyone. Keeping him on loan would give us some time to assess our other options (particularly Saliba) and prepare future decisions.
He already signed an extension before he went on this loan. You want him to sign another extension?
Yes
He Signed until 2023, that means if he goes out on loan next season, he’ll only have 12 months remaining in 2022
Which puts us in a weak negotiating position, there’s no point loaning out a young player, if we don’t protect his value, and are sending him out on loan, so we can educate him for another club to see the benefits of that education
Tempting to loan him out again considering his injury issues. Hopefully he can put the worst of them behind him with Stuttgart to our future benefit?
Not terribly keen on bringing him back though with only one season left on contract.
He signed a contract extension before he went on loan HE has more than one season left
“he’s undoubtedly a Bundesliga-level defender”
I take Sven’s word for it and I say sell.
I actually feel he was never given a Chance at arsenal cause of his fitness problems. I’d like to see the player he can develop into. If Arsene wenger and sven sees talent in him, I don’t see why he’d be a bad defender. Our current options are ageing and maybe we could give him a chance next season
I guess if we got a good enough offer this summer, which can be reinvested in new signings, and given his injury record then selling him is the prudent thing to do?
I think it’s worth giving him a shot otherwise why did we give him a contract extension before he went on loan if we don’t have plans for him to be integrated into the team? I think Arteta is monitoring him probably more than he’s monitoring Saliba
Because we’d learnt about not letting talent run down there contracts?
He’s pretty good at the defensive basics, and very athletic, but not sure he’s as strong as our other CBs on the ball. Bit of a Sokratis perhaps.
I think we should sell. It just comes down to whether we take whatever Stuttgart can offer this year, or gamble and hope he has another good season on loan and Stuttgart/another club are in a better financial position to offer more next year
Stuttgart are on a good path at the moment, it’s a good place for him
I don’t think you’ve seen him play, if you think he’s a bit like Sokratis you haven’t seen him play. He’s a better ball playing defender than Holding and Chambers combined. Only Luiz is better as a right CB. Don’t you remember his debut against Man united away under Wenger. He played Left CB and I think Holding or Chambers was on the right. Mavropanos was the one building attack from the back with his long passing and line breaking passes. He’s a proper ball playing defender with good pace and a bit of Sokratis aggression. Honestly if he can… Read more »
Mari looks like the real deal though. If nothing he can generate transfer funds.
Can we have Mislintat back please
If he only wants to loan him and not buy him then he doesn’t believe he is close to the finished article. Otherwise he would try his hardest to sign him.
Similar with his comments about torreira and guendouzi. If he believes they are such good players, sign them and try to integrate them into the Stuttgart squad then
thats because he knows Arsenal are not going to sell him after giving him a contract extension before he went on loan. They probably tried to buy him and arsenal refused and gave him a contract extension.
I would imagine Stuttgart don’t have much of a budget. They probably can’t afford to buy Mavropanos so a loan is the best they can do while they work their way up the Bundesliga. That would be how they can start to afford to buy better players.
Covid has wrecked everyone’s finances and some clubs weren’t in great shape already.
I’d keep him out on loan if we ever want to get any real money for him, stuttgart wont be a viable option to sell him to if we looking for anything over 6 or 7 million. Maybe if we can keep him on loan there for one more year and perhaps another German side comes in for him.
Anyone’s read the full article ATHLETIC? What he said about certain types of managers I thought was interesting with regards to some managers being able to work and develop young players and some managers only preferring to work with finished players. I think Arteta might be the type that likes to work with ready finished players. I don’t think he knows how to develop young players or has the experience. Coaching young players is different from developing young players. I have not been impressed with Arteta on how he’s handled youngsters at arsenal. All of them.. Starting with Saliba, Martinelli,… Read more »
I wouldn’t really agree with that. A lot of the younger Man City players talked up how good Arteta was with them. He’s clearly getting more out of Saka and Smith Rowe. Gabriel is still pretty young too. He also improved pretty much everyone in the squad when he came in. He even made Mustafi look decent (granted he’s not young but he did develop). I think it’s more that he probably just doesn’t like the petulance and immaturity of some young players (eg Guendouzi). Nelson hasn’t really done anything to convince me he’ll be anything above a midtable winger,… Read more »
Like I said coaching young players is different from development…its like teaching and mentorship they’re not the same thing. So yeah a lot of those man city youngsters talked up his coaching thats great, what he’s doing is more like teaching, I’m talking about development which is like mentorship which is what WENGER does, its a bit of teaching and more. So yeah he could be great at coaching he hasn’t shown he’s good at development. Early signs are not great either. If you ask all the youngsters at the periphery of the first team what their experience has been… Read more »
Not sure how you can judge a managers ability to work with youth after one year in the job.
you don’t need a year to know if someone has what it takes to develop youngsters or not. When Wenger arrived one of the first things he did was buy Anelka and play him talk about a bold move! I made this argument with a friend the other day I said if Arteta where the one in charge when we bought Martinelli from Brazil he’d be on his 2nd loan right now, he’d never play him…he’ll say he’s not ready and ship him out which is my point exactly He has non faith in youth. He only plays Saka because… Read more »