Paul Mitchell & Rob McKenzie

[THFCSPURS19]

http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/foo...06.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Tottenham recruitment chief Paul Mitchell grew disillusioned with club's transfer business after missing out on Michy Batshuayi to Chelsea

Paul Mitchell will leave Tottenham amid claims he had become frustrated with the club’s transfer policy.

The head of recruitment and analysis is under contract until the end of 2017, although it is highly unlikely he will remain that long. As it stands, Mitchell will see out this transfer window and then there are expected to be further discussions.

Leicester, who lost their recruitment chief Steve Walsh to Everton, are thought to be following the situation closely and if Mitchell sees out his contract, it will create a potentially awkward situation if he is targeted by other clubs.

Standard Sport understands Mitchell, an ally of manager Mauricio Pochettino from their Southampton days, had grown disillusioned at the way, at times, transfer business is conducted at Tottenham.

It is thought he believed Michy Batshuayi, the Belgium forward he watched extensively, was ready to join Spurs from Marseille - only for Chelsea to sign him for £33million on a five-year contract worth about £125,000 per week.

In Tottenham’s current wage structure, the best-paid players are in the £75,000-£80,000-a-week bracket.

Mitchell was also an advocate of Lille forward Sofiane Boufal. He is believed to have pushed for Victor Wanyama - who joined Tottenham this summer - to be bought in the summer of 2015, when Spurs did not conclude a deal with Southampton, who ultimately refused to sell.

On Mitchell’s watch, Dele Alli joined Tottenham from MK Dons but David Pleat, the former Tottenham manager, had far more influence in that January 2015 deal than Mitchell did.

Kevin Wimmer was recommended by Mitchell and has earned a new contract but two other players in the 2015 intake, Heung-Min Son and Clinton Njie, may be sold after just one year in north London.

Mitchell’s decision has come as a surprise to many at Spurs, who are negotiating contracts with a number of key players.

JJ gave this a 'spam', which I guess is his way of saying it's BS.

 

[Lilbaz]

Yep, agree with all of that and see this England link now, which would explain a lot...but we still needed a cm last season, the itk said we were looking at options and we have now bought VW...so there was a vacancy. Just speculating mind. What i probably should have said was - how did we miss Kante!

Dembelle, bentaleb, dier, alli, mason, carroll, winks, onomah. We did not need a cm last year.

 

[Metalhead]

JJ gave this a 'spam', which I guess is his way of saying it's BS.

It's crazy how many stories are going around, evidently many of which must be based purely on supposition: shameless.

 

[davidmatzdorf]

Basically what you're saying is that he's that guy in every office who's really good with Excel...

Takes one to know one...

 

[Spurs1960]

So we never had any scouting network before 2014 in the history of the club?

Apparently according to ITK here I believe we were using Scouting Agencies. Paulinho was one such we were told.

 

[thelak]

Can't believe this has got to 26 pages!

For someone working in a recruitment role for 2 years! He may be very talented but virtually none of the success we had last year can be attributed to him.

People have extrapolated this to representing a frustration with levys approach and the honest answer is we don't know

I personally think if it's true our wage cap is still in the 80k range that needs to move with the times to retain and attract top talent but not sure given Mitchell's remit that would be enough to see him go in isolation

 

[Lilbaz]

Can't believe this has got to 26 pages!

For someone working in a recruitment role for 2 years! He may be very talented but virtually none of the success we had last year can be attributed to him.

People have extrapolated this to representing a frustration with levys approach and the honest answer is we don't know

I personally think if it's true our wage cap is still in the 80k range that needs to move with the times to retain and attract top talent but not sure given Mitchell's remit that would be enough to see him go in isolation

The wage cap isn't the £80ks. Levy like to load the deals with bonuses as it gives more incentive for the player and costs us less if they are not doing so well.

 

[Khilari]

I find it hard to believe Mitchell would be frustrated by the inability to sign Batshuayi this summer or Wanyama in 2015. Neither were in the club's hands really and it would be naïve to think that he joined us without knowing what our financial muscle would be. He can't have been under any illusions that we would be spending like Chelsea and I had always assumed his talent in fact was identifying players "yet to be unearthed".

Unless he (or someone at the club) comes out and tells us the real reason he's leaving, we will be left with Mystic Meg style speculation.

 

[StartingPrice]

It's such a big deal because the truth is no one actually knows if it's a big deal or not, and that gives the BSODL, and just the Bs licence to drag out and dust down all our favourite Levy arguments from over the years

Great Leader isn't a bald midget but a tall man on his knees whose friends shaved his head when he fell asleep at a party - was my personal favourite

 

[Bus-Conductor]

JJ gave this a 'spam', which I guess is his way of saying it's BS.

Hardly surprising, what a load of bollocks. I doubt Mitchell joined us thinking we were going to outbid or pay bigger wages than Chelsea.

 

[LexingtonSpurs]

Hardly surprising, what a load of bollocks. I doubt Mitchell joined us thinking we were going to outbid or pay bigger wages than Chelsea.

AVB did....

 

[Bus-Conductor]

I think it's vital for a club like us, for whom value must be eked out of every single transfer and development buck spent that we have a good analyst, I think it's now a (possibly the) pivotal role that ties together the scouting of external players, monitoring of development players, assessing the current first team group and that ties the human element of appraisal of these facets with the scientific.

I think Comolli was an early pioneer, in EPL terms anyway, of this more combined humanscouting/analytical approach and we made some stellar signings under his tenure (Modric, Bale, Berbatov) and some other decent players who provided valuable service. Also a couple of ignominious failures, probably driven by the analytical facet like Bent and Bentley who were poor in every aspect, poor value and did not fit our team dynamics and ethos.

I feel a bit the same about Mitchell. Couple of great signings, couple of decent and couple of not so great. But I would have liked to see him have more time, even if I didn't love all his signings as I believe they were made with the right intentions to marry the perceived needs arrived at by consulting and analysing all the various facets with major input from Pochettino and I hope we persevere with the system and find someone to carry on Mitchell's remit.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

AVB did....

And I say now what I said then, if he did, he was fucking stupid…if...

 

[Mullers]

It's taken a long time to get a good scouting team together, it's a real shame for this to happen, it has the potential to spiral out of control.

 

[EastLondonYid]

I can't believe Levy would want to piss Poch off in any form or shape.......so i would guess Mitchell has gone with Poch's blessing...imo.

 

[nedley]

Doesn't look good what ever way you try and paint it.

 

[KingNothing]

I can't believe Levy would want to piss Poch off in any form or shape.......so i would guess Mitchell has gone with Poch's blessing...imo.

Mauricio Pochettino insists Paul Mitchell wasn't his appointment

Tottenham head coach Mauricio Pochettino has said he had nothing to do with Paul Mitchell's departure from former club Southampton.

Mitchell's appointment as Tottenham's head of recruitment and analysis was confirmed on Wednesday.

Press Association Sport reports Tottenham paid Southampton compensation for the former Wigan and MK Dons player, who links up again with the coaching staff he worked with at St Mary's.

Pochettino, who penned a five-year deal as Spurs head coach in the summer, suggests, though, it was others at the club and not him that took the decision to hire Mitchell.

"I never spoke about the new appointment," the Spurs boss said. "I know Paul from Southampton but only I say all the best and good luck in his job."

Asked if he had any role in the appointment, Pochettino said: "No. The club find him and proposed the job."

Mitchell's arrival at Tottenham leaves a void at Southampton, yet manager Ronald Koeman is unfazed by the exit of the man that has headed up the club's scouting and recruitment department since January 2012.

"I think it more of a reflection of what he did and what the club is doing over the last few years," Koeman said.

"Okay, we would like to keep everybody in, but it is football, it is life. There are changes, not only with the players but managers, with technical directors, with chairmen - as well in the position of Paul Mitchell.

"Good luck to him, and we have to look for another one to bring in."

http://www.espnfc.com/tottenham-hot...mitchell-was-not-his-appointment-at-tottenham

 

[Archibald&Crooks]

It's taken a long time to get a good scouting team together, it's a real shame for this to happen, it has the potential to spiral out of control.

Spiral out of control in what way? Poch being pissed off and leaving, Levy appointing a numpty as manager and we end up finishing 12th, the fans turn (at long long last) against the stunted one who then sells the club to Peter Ridsdale who proceeds to fulfill the BSoDL's favourite fairy tale until we end up in League Two, groundsharing with Leyton Orient, meanwhile Levy grows a full and lush head of hair which he has put into dreadlocks, buys Brentford and for the first time ever, one of his five year plans comes off and he has them champions of europe with a year to spare

We didn't get where we are today because of Paul fucking Mitchell. No great loss.

 

[RicOfPeace]

Spiral out of control in what way? Poch being pissed off and leaving, Levy appointing a numpty as manager and we end up finishing 12th, the fans turn (at long long last) against the stunted one who then sells the club to Peter Ridsdale who proceeds to fulfill the BSoDL's favourite fairy tale until we end up in League Two, groundsharing with Leyton Orient, meanwhile Levy grows a full and lush head of hair which he has put into dreadlocks, buys Brentford and for the first time ever, one of his five year plans comes off and he has them champions of europe with a year to spare.

Is that what you mean?

We didn't get where we are today because of Paul fucking Mitchell. No great loss.

This...
And tbf Southampton haven't exactly turned to shit after losing him.

 

[Mullers]

Spiral out of control in what way? Poch being pissed off and leaving, Levy appointing a numpty as manager and we end up finishing 12th, the fans turn (at long long last) against the stunted one who then sells the club to Peter Ridsdale who proceeds to fulfill the BSoDL's favourite fairy tale until we end up in League Two, groundsharing with Leyton Orient, meanwhile Levy grows a full and lush head of hair which he has put into dreadlocks, buys Brentford and for the first time ever, one of his five year plans comes off and he has them champions of europe with a year to spare.

Is that what you mean?

We didn't get where we are today because of Paul fucking Mitchell. No great loss.

That bit in bold plus Levy appointing a bad replacement for Mitchell. The signings under Mitchell have been very good to decent, no duds so far, it's an important thing to get right because we don't want to waste money.