Arsenal Head of Recruitment Sven Mislintat was in the stands for Schalke’s derby match against Borussia Dortmund over the weekend.
ESPN writer (and friend of our editor, Lee Hurley) Stefan Buczko spotted Mislintat amongst the journalists and other members of the media watching the match.
He posted a picture to prove as much on Twitter:
Arsenal sent their scout, too. #s04bvb pic.twitter.com/SiP9KekkdY
— Stefan Buczko (@StefanBuczko) April 15, 2018
Arsenal have already made a habit of signing former Dortmund players since bringing Mislintat to the club. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang joined directly from the Bundesliga side, of course, whilst Henrikh Mkhitaryan came via Manchester United.
However, there are plenty of reasons why Mislintat may have decided to attend the match. He spent a long time with Dortmund, so perhaps he simply wanted to watch his old club in a big game.
If that’s the case, then unfortunately he won’t have enjoyed it much. Schalke won the match 2-0.
If he was on a scouting mission though, it’s not exactly clear which player he was focusing on. The media linked Amine Harit to Arsenal last summer, but the 20-year-old moved to Schalke instead, and has a contract until 2021.
Naldo, the centre-back, scored and was probably man-of-the-match. Whilst Arsenal do need defensive reinforcements, I’m not sure a 35-year-old fits the bill.
Perhaps his teammate Benjamin Stambouli then, or Sokratis on the other side of the pitch.
He might also have been there to scout Max Meyer but the Schalke midfielder spent the entire game on the bench.