Liverpool may see announcement as blessing after Arsenal lost £103m

Liverpool v Arsenal: Pictures

Ajax have announced the arrival of Sven Mislintat as their new Director of Football as they look to continue their success of acquiring young players to sell on for ludicrous profits. The German was linked with succeeding Julian Ward at Liverpool over the summer, though failing to land the target may have been a blessing in disguise.

Mislintat has a reputation for spotting top talents in the Bundesliga, being nicknamed the ‘Diamantenauge’ – which translates as Diamond Eye – in Germany. He rose through the ranks at Borussia Dortmund.

The German then made the move to Arsenal following a public disagreement with Thomas Tuchel that saw him frozen out of the inside circle at the Signal Iduna Park. Though his time at the Emirates Stadium was largely underwhelming and he left for Stuttgart in 2019, having made eight signings in north London.

Mislintat was reportedly identified by Liverpool as a potential Director of Football candidate, with the links with Jurgen Klopp from Dortmund seen as an attractive concept. However, Ajax swooped to secure his signature – though that may not be as significant of a blow as it first appears.

Mislintat splashed the cash with Arsenal, though only two of the eight players he signed were sold on for profit and he saw the club lose £103million on his signings overall. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Stephan Lichtsteiner, Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Henrikh Mkhitaryan were all allowed to leave the Gunners on a free transfer having been signed by their former recruitment expert.

Whereas Bernd Leno and Lucas Torreira were sold for markedly less than they were acquired for – with Dinos Mavropanos (£1.5m) and Matteo Gundouzi (£2m) being his only profitable acquisitions, and they were far from ground-breaking.

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The significant loss on Arsenal’s balance sheet during Mislintat’s tenure will likely bring Liverpool some comfort after missing out on him. Speaking about his move to the Eredivisie, Ajax’s new Director of Football said: “From the day in February when Edwin called me to ask if I would be interested to walk through their process to become the Director of Football at Ajax, I immediately got caught up by the idea and stopped talking to others.

“Born and raised in Dortmund, I grew up in the shadow of significant, traditional football clubs. Ever since my childhood, I have known, and still see, Ajax as one of the most iconic clubs in the world. To become Ajax’s Director of Football after trustful, intense, and great talks means a lot to me. I feel it as a huge honour and see it as my obligation to support the club to the best of my abilities.”

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