Tottenham: Mitchell Struggled to Work with Levy

Some details are emerging as to why Paul Mitchell has decided to leave Tottenham and it might not be entirely surprising.

When reports first emerged that Paul Mitchell and Tottenham had mutually agreed to part ways, early suggestions believed that the 34-year-old and Mauricio Pochettino couldn’t coexist after the Argentine manager was given more power (read: final say) on transfers after signing a five-year contract extension.

But the Daily Mail reported that Mitchell’s exit had nothing to with Pochettino. And indeed, that wouldn’t have made sense even if it were true. However, if it was Daniel Levy, then this could be more plausible. And that’s what The Guardian thinks was the case.

must read: Paul Mitchell Leaves Tottenham

According to David Hynter of The Guardian, Mitchell’s “dream job turned into a nightmare”.

What that means is anyone’s guess, but Hynter notes that the frustrations working with Tottenham far outweighed any satisfaction of helping them unearth gems.

“He [Mitchell] had simply had enough at White Hart Lane and the frustrations were so great and the job satisfaction so little that he chose to inform the board of his desire to quit,” David Hynter wrote.

No one truly knows what happened behind the scenes, but it’s not difficult to understand that some people just don’t get along well with others. You could only tolerate working with someone for so long even if you don’t outright hate the person.

During work hours it might seem like two people are good fits, but outside of work they’re hardly friends. They’re more like acquaintances instead.

This doesn’t exactly sum up Paul Mitchell and Daniel Levy’s situation, though Levy is known to be a tough negotiator. And that could have rubbed Mitchell the wrong way as Head of Recruitment.

Although the 34-year-old has informed Tottenham that he will leave, his exit won’t be immediate. The article above states that Mitchell will stay with Spurs for the remainder of the summer transfer window.

Once this period of time is over, he will move on and most likely join another club.

Waiting to make an approach seems to be the defending Premier League champions, Leicester City, who will be eyeing a replacement for Steve Walsh after he joined Everton.

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Despite the eventual exit of Paul Mitchell, there should be no worries moving forward for Tottenham.

Mitchell, along with Mauricio Pochettino and the rest of Tottenham’s transfer committee, found talented players together. It wasn’t just Mitchell alone just because of his title with the club.

During the 2014 summer transfer window, and even the 2015 winter transfer window, it’s not known if the 34-year-old had any input, but it wouldn’t be surprising if he didn’t. All of the players Tottenham had scouted were done well in advance before Mitchell arrived.

This obviously shows that they could do a good job of finding players.

Looking back on what Paul Mitchell has done, his most extensive work was helping scout players in the 2015 summer window, 2016 winter window (even if no signings were made) and during this summer.

And in that single year, while Tottenham got some good players in Kevin Wimmer, Kieran Trippier, Toby Alderweireld, Clinton N’Jie, Son Heung-Min, Victor Wanyama and Vincent Janssen, it was a group effort throughout Spurs’ transfer committee.

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No doubt Tottenham will miss Paul Mitchell and what he has done in nearly two years of scouting and other jobs that he did with the club as Head of Recruitment. Though he isn’t someone that’s irreplaceable, that’s quite a stretch.

More than anything, Mitchell’s departure signifies that Mauricio Pochettino will oversee Tottenham’s scouting and have final say on who Spurs will target. And as a manager of the team, this shouldn’t be surprising since he needs to find players who fits into his system rather than just finding good players overall.