After a 14-month stint in charge of the Gunners' recruitment matters, Sven Mislintat has returned to Germany to work with struggling Stuttgart
Sven Mislintat has been hired as Stuttgart's new sporting director, two months after he left his job as head of recruitment with Premier League club Arsenal.
The Gunners hired Mislintat in December 2017 and he was viewed as one of the key figures in their rebuild following long-serving manager Arsene Wenger's exit after the 2017-18 season.
Bernd Leno, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Lucas Torreira, Matteo Guendouzi and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang all joined the club in Mislintat's time in charge, yet it was announced in January that he would be vacating his position in February. Mislintat reportedly wanted to take on a technical director role at Arsenal but instead feared his influence on the club's transfer business would diminish if they were to appoint someone else to the position.
Having formerly held a post with Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund, where he built a reputation as a top scout with an eye for inexpensive quality, Mislintat has returned to Germany to take a job with Stuttgart.
Stuttgart, for whom former Germany international Thomas Hitzlsperger is the head of sport, are currently 16th in the table and occupy the relegation playoff place.
"Sven Mislintat has built a great reputation in his long career and with his knowledge, his network and his way of thinking about football, he fits in perfectly with us," Hitzlsperger said in quotes published on the club's website.
"I am very pleased that he has decided to become part of our team."
Mislintat added: "It is a huge challenge and at the same time a great honour to work for a club like VFB.
"I grew up in the environment of traditional clubs, this atmosphere is very important to me."
Stuttgart are four points from safety in the Bundesliga and have six games to escape the playoff place. On Saturday they host ninth-placed Bayer Leverkusen, who have lost their last three matches in the league.
SirLammy
0
Fair play to him, he got what he wanted, to have full authority at the club over targeting, signing and releasing players. People may try to discredit his work here or talk about a difficult character to work with, but this is honestly baseless. His signings proved mostly right and in line with our transfer philosophy (cheap, potential, technical). Arsenal have yet failed to hire a TD or DoF and it is unclear what kind of scouting and recruitment policy Sanllehi is looking to implement at Arsenal really, with some talks around Monchi for example ending up a bit embarrassing tbh. I would have liked to Mislintat's team building vision at Arsenal, not sure if there are fitting candidates available who have a better record. Luis Campos is probably the highly rated atm, but it seems far fetched. I hope the German left a list with his main targets at the club, as we should be going into the summer transfer market prepared, which doesn't look to be the case exactly on that club staff level.
monchi and overmars would have been good too but we have missed out on both as well
SirLammy
0
We missed out by letting him go, especially considering the people we wanted afterwards didn't pan out. Best of luck to you, Sven! Thanks for...uhhhh....what did he do?
he brought auba, papa, Leno, Lucas and Matteo to the club
nutmegprince
1
he left arsenal to work with stuggart... am confused
lodging
0
they guy likes a challenge apparently
okanbill
0
interesting appointment, hopefully he helps restore stuttgart to their former glory.
DalimahHusseinOneil
0
am I the only one struggling in mentioning his name[byebye]
GERFootball
0
Happy he didn't go to Liverpool, United, Spurs or somewhere that disastrous. Given that he was already in England, I assume he was in talks but they turned him down? Makes our decision to let him go more digestable; maybe he's just difficult to work with.
addition
0
Glad he's not going to a rival
ourselve
1
We missed out by letting him go, especially considering the people we wanted afterwards didn't pan out. Best of luck to you, Sven! Thanks for...uhhhh....what did he do?
yinwowo
0
Good luck in the 2. Bundesliga...
horse
0
I hope our relationship isn't too bad with him, would be nice if we could get some kind of partnership going with them to send some of our younger players there to play in the Bundesliga.
dolphiner
0
The fact that he has significantly downgraded indicates to me that maybe the club was right to let him go.
Barnard
0
Fair play to him, he got what he wanted, to have full authority at the club over targeting, signing and releasing players. People may try to discredit his work here or talk about a difficult character to work with, but this is honestly baseless. His signings proved mostly right and in line with our transfer philosophy (cheap, potential, technical). Arsenal have yet failed to hire a TD or DoF and it is unclear what kind of scouting and recruitment policy Sanllehi is looking to implement at Arsenal really, with some talks around Monchi for example ending up a bit embarrassing tbh. I would have liked to Mislintat's team building vision at Arsenal, not sure if there are fitting candidates available who have a better record. Luis Campos is probably the highly rated atm, but it seems far fetched. I hope the German left a list with his main targets at the club, as we should be going into the summer transfer market prepared, which doesn't look to be the case exactly on that club staff level.
oldestde
0
I think this makes sense. He is proven as a world class scout, but he's also an extremely unproven DoF. He's gone from head scout for Dortmund and Arsenal -- two massive clubs -- to being Sports Director. Not at AC Milan, or PSG, or Man United, or Roma, but at Stuttgart. Being great at one job does not equal being great at another -- even in the same industry. Ask Thierry Henry or Tony Adams. Thus if Sven sees this job title as the next step of his career, he will have to start at a lower level than the one he became accustomed to, in order to prove himself worthy of a big club.
Howarer
0
Man like Mislintat doing his best Thom Yorke impression, but younger and tanner
portrait
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Better than going to some domestic competitor
welcome13
0
He's one the best scouts of the past couple years. How that will translate into a position like DoF is beyond me, but I guess we'll see.
Sokanola
0
Arsenal should rehire him, just a thought.
Fordroad
0
Beautiful news. Wouldn't have been possivle without Hitzlsperger for sure.
Grancegad
0
Great for Stuttgart, congrats
Stockholm
0
I hope he does well at Stuttgart Always had a soft spot for that club for some reason.
KGlove
0
Well at least we didn't lose him to a rival. Good luck to him, wish he'd stayed longer here.