Former Arsenal Head of Recruitment Sven Mislintat Joins Stuttgart

Former Arsenal head of recruitment Sven Mislintat has signed a two-year deal with Bundesliga side Stuttgart to become their new sporting director. 

Per Jake Polden of the Mirror, Mislintat said his first priority with his new club will be to secure Bundesliga survival, before he starts the rebuild of VfB:

"It is a huge challenge and at the same time a great honor to work for a club like VfB.

"I grew up in the environment of traditional clubs, this atmosphere is very important to me.

"The talks with [president] Wolfgang Dietrich and [director of football] Thomas Hitzlsperger were extremely good and decisive for my decision for VfB.

"Our joint focus is in the coming weeks on the fight for survival, of course, the look is also already on the plans for the new season."

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Stuttgart are five-time national champions and won the Bundesliga as recently as 2007, but they've fallen on hard times in the past few years. The club has struggled for consistency and were relegated in 2016 but earned promotion in the following season.

They're in a tight battle against relegation this year and find themselves in the play-off spot, four points behind Augsburg.

Mislintat is best known for his work with Borussia Dortmund, where he developed a reputation as one of the best bargain-hunters in Europe.

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At BVB, he unearthed the likes of Shinji Kagawa, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Ousmane Dembele. He signed Aubameyang again after he joined Arsenal, as well as the likes of Lucas Torreira and Matteo Guendouzi.

But according to Polden, Mislintat left over "alleged differences in opinion" with sporting director Raul Sanllehi, while there was also speculation Arsenal's lack of spending power played a role.

At Stuttgart he'll have a bigger role, and the opportunity to steer the sporting project likely played a role in his decision, per Bundesliga writer James Jukes.

While the club have struggled in recent years, Stuttgart remain among Germany's biggest, with a massive fanbase and a large membership. They also have impressive facilities, including the Mercedes-Benz Arena, which seats over 60,000.

Sportswriter Manuel Veth descirbed VfB as a "sleeping giant" when discussing the move:

Stuttgart are winless in their last four Bundesliga matches and would face Union Berlin in a play-off for the final Bundesliga spot if the season ended today.