COMMENT: So he's off. Sven Mislintat. Fourteen months in. Barely a year to put together a team that is a genuine top prospect. And it's over. A couple of weeks from now he and Arsenal part ways for good.
There's one man to blame in all this. And he's not even on the club's books. Arsene Wenger. Yep, that's right. Blame Wenger!
As much as he was courted by Ivan Gazidis. As much as the board flattered him with their seven-figure offer to Borussia Dortmund to buyout his contract. The reason Mislintat agreed to the 'Head of Recruitment' post at Arsenal was the presence of Wenger. Even today, well over six months since the manager's departure, Mislintat cannot stop talking up the experience to friends of working with the Frenchman.
For it was Wenger that inspired Mislintat to quit a playing career before 30. To ditch the playing side of an assistant's role at little VfL Kamen. And focus totally on management - specifically scouting and team building.
"I just wanted to coach and no longer just be another player," he recently recalled. And the model he focused on in those early days was Wenger's and what he was doing at Arsenal.
Uncovering young talent others had ignored. Finding a gem in the lower leagues of another country. Buying low and selling high. These were all traits of Wenger's team building that Mislintat studied. The chance to work with his hero was simply too good an opportunity to pass up.
So while Gazidis' departure for AC Milan may've rocked the boat. The management shake-up leaving the German sidelined. It was the decision for Wenger to depart which was the real blow.
Mislintat had joined Arsenal to work with Wenger - not replace him. Yes, Gazidis had made it clear he would be at the head of a new era, where Wenger wasn't in full control of transfer policy. But this was no hostile takeover. Mislintat was eager - excited - to be working with Wenger. And the six or so months they were together he genuinely enjoyed.
But with the change of manager. The front office restructure. And the cultural change (as we discussed in the previous column) to recruitment. Mislintat became unsettled. Diamond Eye began looking around. And from Germany, while Bayern Munich have ruled out a move, they insist he isn't short of interest.
And why not? In just two transfer windows. Has a football director, working in the Premier League, ever made such an impact? Matteo Guendouzi and Lucas Torreira could run that midfield for years. Some ex-Gooners talk openly about comparisons between Thierry Henry and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Sokratis is the leader Wenger had been for years crying out for. And young Dino Mavropanos, if he can get fit, could be anything.
Aubameyang apart, he did all this on a budget. Sticking to those original principles inspired by Wenger all those years ago. He broke down the Frenchman's final team and gave it a spine - a real spine in both personnel and spirit - that fans can get excited about. And one the front office, including the new technical director, can now steadily add to.
Job done. Mislintat will definitely leave the Arsenal squad in better shape than when he arrived.
But where will the German be leaving to? For this column, you hope that his next destination will be within the Premier League.
A football chief driven to find the next big thing from the most unlikely of places. But also one - as he did with Aubameyang - willing to recommend a big outlay on a bit of gold dust to fill the seats. And with a record - from Dortmund to North London - that stacks up against any peer working to a similar, indeed even greater, budget.
Premier League chairmen surely aren't going to let this talent slip away to the continent?
