Arsenal sent timely January transfer reminder as Edu decision justified

Former Arsenal head of recruitment Sven Mislintat has been roundly criticised by Ajax legend Sjaak Swart prompting the discussion whether the Gunners were lucky to see the German leave and replaced eventually with Edu Gaspar. The Brazilian won director of the year in 2023 at the Golden Boy awards and has been responsible for helping Mikel Arteta build a squad that surprised everyone last season with a title charge and has embarked on a successive one again this season.

Mislintat left Arsenal in February of 2019. The hope of becoming technical director did not materialise and there were disagreements over the direction of how to recruit and Mislintat would opt to leave.

He joined Stuttgart before moving to Ajax to get his dream job of sporting director. However, he was sacked in September due to "a lack of broad support" across the club. Ajax have had a poor season by their standards but in recent times have been able to recover form and risen to fifth in the table but remain 15 points off leaders PSV.

Interestingly, Swart told Today Inside via Ajax Showtime reporter Noa Vahle key details about his experiences with the 51-year-old. He said: "I have been a member for 75 years and I have never experienced anything like this.

"That a team has been so screwed up in a year and a half, by one man. Mr. Mislintat, his name is. I have another name for it, but I won't say it.

"It is bad that Van der Sar, Overmars and the Supervisory Board were away at that time. As a result, the man went his own way and brought in 12 players."

He added about when he first took the role: "Then he seemed nice. I was a legend and he wanted to talk to me about whether we could do something together, also with players.

"I helped with that and submitted a nice list. Then we really wouldn't have been where we are now.

"But that didn't work out at all, because he just threw it in the trash. This man has completely ruined Ajax at the moment."

Ajax signed Josip Sutalo, Georges Mikautadze, Carlos Forbs and former Arsenal player Chuba Akpom among the 12 additions. Swart claims that with Mislintat gone things are getting better, but he wants consequences.

"It is now being sorted out a bit. I hope it comes true and the man is punished," Swart added. "He just messed things up and that's really bad. It was just when Van der Sar was leaving and I thought that was a shame, because I think Van der Sar has done a great job for Ajax."

It does prompt the question what would have happened if Mislintat had indeed been in charge of the moves made into Arteta’s tenure. Almost all of the players signed during his tenure have no left the club including the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Lucas Torreira and Bernd Leno.

Edu and Arteta have had to work to completely overhaul the squad and now it finds itself in the position and expectation of challenging Manchester City having also returned to the Champions League for the first time in more than half a decade. It has not however been perfect.

There is scrutiny this season for the investment in Kai Havertz and the loan move for David Raya squeezing Aaron Ramsdale out of the line-up. Moves for Nuno Tavares, Sambi Lokonga and Fabio Vieira have so far not succeeded.

However, when looking at the overall investment, there are far more hits than misses. Ironing out the missteps is sure to elevate the club to higher heights than most imagined during the years of the previous regime.