New Arsenal head of recruitment Sven Mislintat has cited a training ground ban under Thomas Tuchel as the main reason he considered a move away from Borussia Dortmund.
Mislintat vacated his position as Dortmund's head of professional football on Tuesday to take on a role at Arsenal. The 45-year-old had previously been chased by several Bundesliga clubs, but until the Premier League offer Dortmund managed to fend off suitors including Bayern Munich and Hamburg.
Speaking to kicker following his departure from the Westfalenstadion, Mislintat has now admitted that a row with BVB's former head coach Tuchel over a move for Atletico Madrid midfielder Oliver Torres in January 2016 made him consider other offers, and ultimately led to his decision to leave the club.
"I probably never would have considered thinking about other clubs," Mislintat said. "But the training ground ban, initiated by the club's former coach, as well as the instructions to keep away from the inner circle, from players, from the staff, from many friends with whom I worked so closely throughout the years, all of that influenced my thinking.
"I already had offers in the past years, but I never really considered making changes."
Following the training ground ban, Mislintat continued his work from the club's main offices close to the Westfalenstadion. While he worked on bringing in players like Ousmane Dembele or Alexander Isak, he made up his mind to seek a new adventure away from the club he had been working for since 2006.
"He's done outstanding work at BVB. We took this into account several weeks ago when Sven informed me of his desire to accept Arsenal's extraordinary offer," BVB sporting director Michael Zorc said in a statement on the club's official website, thanking one of his "closet colleagues" for his work at the club.
In the official statement, Mislintat said that Dortmund need not worry since the "scouting department [is organised] in such a way that it would always operate at a high level regardless of individuals."