Former Borussia Dortmund head scout Sven Mislintat started his new job at Arsenal this month, but he has played down expectations that he will “sign an Ousmane Dembélé in every transfer window.”
Speaking to German football magazine Kicker, Mislintat, who is credited with discovering the likes of Shinji Kagawa and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, cautioned: “It usually takes two transfer windows for a new head scout to make his own mark on a team.”
In 11 years at his local club, Mislintat, 45, worked closely with Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc and built up a formidable scouting department which developed a reputation for uncovering the best young talents in Europe. But he admitted that England was never a target market.
“I’ve watched games in England where there wasn’t a single player on either team who I could have imagined playing for Borussia Dortmund,” he said. “With the exception of Dortmund’s youth academy, I never looked at England at all. But the Premier League is now my market.”
Not that Arsenal fans should expect immediate results, with Mislintat saying that his initial focus is on getting familiar with his new surroundings.
“I first need to develop an idea of where we are at and learn the philosophy so that I can provide Arsène Wenger with exactly what he needs,” he explained. “October, November, December is a great time to start for a scout. It’s the quietest time for transfers so you have time to build up a portfolio before starting to make decisions.”
“Ultimately, it damaged all of us.”
Despite all his good work in Germany, Mislintat’s time at Dortmund came to an unsavoury end after a high-profile dispute with former manager Thomas Tuchel, ostensibly over the failure to sign Spanish youngster Oliver Torres, then with Atletico Madrid.
“He’s fantastic in possession and I would have loved to have signed him,” said Mislintat of the current FC Porto player. “For me, he’s one of the best number eights in Europe with a great range of passing and spatial awareness. Given six months, he would have been the perfect replacement for Ilkay Gündogan.”
But Tuchel was reportedly also unhappy with Mislintat’s demeanour around the club, including his sloppy appearance and tendency to smoke on the touchline – behaviour for which Mislintat was banned from the training ground. On that occasion, the Dortmund hierarchy sided with their coach, but it was Tuchel who was ultimately sacked last summer.
“There are a lot of things which I could have done without during that period and I think Thomas Tuchel would say the same,” admits Mislintat. “Ultimately, it damaged all of us.”
“If you ask my former scouting team, nobody would say: Sven is the boss! I am an advocate of open communication, honesty and intricate analysis – of my own behaviour, too. That’s what made my old department at BVB stand out.”
Mislintat believes he has other qualities too, describing how he was determined to convince Dortmund to sign Kagawa in 2010.
“We travelled to Japan six times to watch him and, in the end, he signed for 350,000 euros,” he recalls. “Just imagine: here’s a player from Japan’s second division, let’s go and get him! I had to do a lot of convincing!”
