The loan deal with Denis Suarez was not the straw that broke the camel's back for Sven Mislintat. 'Diamond Eye' did not walk out of a job that he had hoped to be in for a decade because he didn't like a loan signing Arsenal made to plug a gap.
But Raul Sanllehi's decision to prioritise Suarez over other potential options, including Yannick Carrasco of Dalian Yifang and Inter Milan's Ivan Perisic, was an exclamation point on Mislintat's dwindling influence after only a year at Arsenal. It was no wonder he chose to move on early in January.
It should be noted from the outset that Mislintat did little to build that influence beyond the scouting department he led. Indeed many at the club, including scouts, saw the 46-year-old as something of a lone wolf, less a leader of men than an isolated, difficult figure.
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Some felt he took credit for transfers that were not his, with every successful signing Arsenal made in the two transfer windows Mislintat was in place being viewed from the outside as only further burnishing the former Borussia Dortmund chief scout's enviable reputation.
But there were signings that unmistakably had Mislintat's fingerprints all over them, not just the recruitment of Borussia Dortmund trio Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, two-thirds of whom have been undoubted success in Arsenal shirt.
Mislintat had planned to make Konstantinos Mavropanos his first signing before his appointment at Arsenal was even formally confirmed. Though injuries have slowed the young Greek defender's progress this year Unai Emery is no less an admirer of his talents than Arsene Wenger was.
Had he been fit Mavropanos could well have been a more regular figure in Emery's plans by now.
So the signings Mislintat has led on have been, for the most part, impressive. Hence it is easy to understand why he was so put out to see the club pursuing a target in Suarez championed far more by Emery and Sanllehi than by the man whose job it was to find the players for the first team.
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Mislintat had already been turned down for a promotion to technical director, where he would have had greater input into building an 'Arsenal way' of playing football. Signing Suarez against his advice might well have felt like even his existing job was being chipped away at.
Suarez was clearly an addition championed by the Spanish contingent. Emery is not usually one to publicly address transfer rumours but his references to the playmaker, who had worked under him for a single season at Sevilla, were glowing.
He could play on the wings, Emery insisted. He would bring "quality and options in many different attacking positions".
Instead he has proven to be more of the same, a similarly flighty inside forward who lacks the pace and cutting edge that Alex Iwobi and Henrikh Mkhitaryan have also failed to provide.
Whether Carrasco or Perisic would have been successes is unknowable. It is hard to see how they could have proven to be worse signings worse though.
Suarez is vying with inauspicious names indeed for the title of worst player Arsenal have ever signed. The only redeeming grace of the £2million loan fee is that the club are not on the hook for the £18m purchase commitment Barcelona fought to have placed in the loan agreement. At least Kim Kallstrom scored in the shoot-out against Wigan.
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A groin injury has slowed his progress in recent weeks but the 25-year-old rarely moved with the same speed and directness on the pitch as he did when making his way out of the Emirates Stadium after a game was finished.
Had the injury not worsened in recent weeks Suarez might have at least made a start before his loan spell at Arsenal was brought to an abrupt end. Even if that were the case Mislintat might well have proven vindicated.
If Emery and Sanllehi had heeded his advice they might well have made a signing that offered Arsenal a real option heading into the final weeks of the season. And in Mislintat they might still have a difficult but undeniably effective talent spotter in their hierarchy.
The fall of Denis Suarez and the disastrous Arsenal loan deal that cannot end soon enough
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