In a shock announcement that no one saw coming this morning, Newcastle Unite appointed the highly-rated Paul Mitchell as our new sporting director, with the 42-year-old set to start work immediately and move to the North-East next week.
Mitchell is not just highly regarded in the game for his recruitment record, he’s been at the heart of a number of impressive operations with strong recruitment models.
In this piece I will focus on some of the gems he’s helped unearth from his very first scouting role at MK Dons (2012) to his sporting director position at AS Monaco; his last role in football following his departure last October.
Going club by club, here’s some of the deals he’s overseen:
- MK Dons – Dele Alli
- Southampton – Sadio Mane (£10m), Dusan Tadic (£11m), Victor Wanyama (£12.5m), Graziano Pelle (£8m)
- Tottenham – Heung-Min Son (£22m), Kieran Trippier (£3.5m), Toby Alderweireld (£11m), Dele Alli (£5m).
- RB Leipzig – Christopher Nkunku (£11m), Dani Olmo (£17m), Patrik Schick (£23m), Matheus Cunha (£12.5m), Nordi Mukiele (£13.5m)
- AS Monaco – Alex Disasi (£10m)
In a summer that saw Southampton lose Lallana, Lovren, Shaw and Pochettino, he played a key role in the immediate rebuild as the Saints brought in Mane, Tadic, Bertrand and Pelle, where they went on to finish 7th that season (2014/15).
He brought Son to the Premier League, played a big role in building Pochettino’s exciting Spurs side and has picked up some gems at RB Leipzig, recruiting the likes of Nkunku (now at Chelsea), Schick (now at Bayer Leverkusen), Mukiele (now at PSG), Cunha (now at Wolves) and Olmo; a Spanish international currently starring at Euro 2024.
In his last role, Mitchell helped sort a bloated Monaco squad filled with youth talents out on loan, signed Axel Disasi for £10m before his £38m switch to Chelsea and helped oversee the development of Tchouameni (now at Real Madrid) and Badiashile (now at Chelsea) before they sealed big-money moves.
His role at Leipzig within the Red Bull Group points towards his forward-thinking approach in recruitment and data-analysis, where he helped sign young, attacking players who fitted perfectly in a high-intensity style. Sounds ideal for Eddie Howe’s Newcastle, doesn’t it?
Thats an insane list of players, wow. If we can get anything like that kind of quality from him we’ll quickly forget ashworth the rat.
A right sided sadio mane would be nice for now.
Toonali87(Quote)