Amid rumours that Barcelona’s big-money signing Ousmane Dembele could join Arsenal in the upcoming transfer window, the London club’s head of recruitment has praised the French forward which is sure to further fuel the rumours. 

Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang are three players who have played for Borussia Dortmund and were picked up by Sven Mislintat, who has now set his sights on Dembele. 

“I saw him when he had not even played for Rennes in the first team,” Mislintat explained. “I bet he did not know which foot he used in certain situations because he just did not think about it.”  

The German spoke about the ambipedal traits of the winger and compared him to Shinji Kagawa, adding: “I felt this is a really special player. Kagawa was one of them, too. We were in Japan twice. No-one could stop him. With one movement, he changed the whole direction of the game.”  

Mislintat also defended the player’s exit from Dortmund.  

“The transfer was done by the directors, not because of a strike. It’s true that Ousmane didn’t go to training, but the skill to develop strategies and explode into space on the pitch was worth its weight in gold.”  

Arsenal will test Barcelona’s resolution in January as they attempt to acquire the World Cup winner.