Apparently Steve Hitchen has resigned.
Tottenham upheaval continues as Steve Hitchen resigns - and is targeted by Everton
Hitchen, Spurs' director of technical performance, is the latest in a long line of senior figures to leave the club recently
ByMatt Law, FOOTBALL NEWS CORRESPONDENT2 February 2022 • 4:15pm
Everton have targeted Steve Hitchen for the club’s vacant director of football role after he became the latest high-profile member of staff to quit Tottenham Hotspur.
Hitchen has formally resigned on the eve of his fifth anniversary at Spurs, where he was the club’s director of technical performance, after becoming frustrated by his
reduced role in the past two transfer windows following the arrival of Fabio Paratici as managing director of football.
Everton are understood to want to speak to Hitchen as they look to replace Marcel Brands and provide
new manager Frank Lampard with a director of football to work alongside.
Spurs have now lost over 100 years of experience over the course of the past 18 months in what has represented an unprecedented series of key departures.
Hitchen was the last remaining member of the football structure - which included Mauricio Pochettino and John McDermott - that took Tottenham to the 2019 Champions League final. The 45 year-old lasted longer than any other recruitment specialist under chairman Daniel Levy, including Frank Arnesen, Damien Comolli, Franco Baldini and Paul Mitchell, who he succeeded.
Hitchen's role diminished since Paratici's arrival
Before the summer appointment of Paratici, Hitchen essentially acted as Tottenham’s director of football, forging a close and successful relationship with former manager Pochettino and becoming a popular figure at the training ground. He was well liked by current head coach Antonio Conte.
But the former Macclesfield Town defender was not as heavily involved in the summer and January transfer windows after the arrival of Paratici and spent most of the past six months overseeing the club’s medical, sports science and analysis departments.
Hitchen informed Levy of his decision to leave after a January transfer window in which Paratici took charge of the ins and outs, as he did last summer and over the appointments of head coaches Nuno Espirto Santo,
who was fired after just four months, and Conte.
Club back out of Hitchen-negotiated Fernandes, Dybala and Grealish signings
Along with Levy and more lately Paratici, Hitchen, like many of his predecessors, has at times come under fire from supporters who have blamed him for Tottenham’s transfer business and
failure to land big-name targets.
At different times, Hitchen negotiated deals for Bruno Fernandes, Paulo Dybala, Jack Grealish and James Ward-Prowse only for the club to back out of completing the transfers over financial issues.
Money was spent by Tottenham during the time of Hitchen, who was responsible for delivering club record signing Tanguy Ndombele and Giovani Lo Celso for Pochettino, who had made the pair two of his priority targets. Both players left on loan during the January transfer window and it is telling that Pochettino tried to take Ndombele to Paris Saint-Germain before he eventually returned to Lyon.
Mourinho was genuinely thrilled in the summer of 2020, when Hitchen helped to sign all of his targets - Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Sergio Reguilon and Matt Doherty, together with the loan return of Gareth Bale. Doherty has not worked out, while Bale returned to Real Madrid.
The fact that Hitchen has already been targeted by Everton, as well as attracting some interest from Saudi Sportswashing Machine and Leicester City, points to the fact that there is understanding within football that he largely worked well within challenging conditions at Tottenham, given all of their top-four rivals have greater financial resources available.
Hitchen's departure is the latest in a long line of senior staff
With Paratici in place, Tottenham may not need to replace Hitchen but his departure is the latest in a string of departures of long-serving senior staff that has altered the culture of the club and caused some disillusionment behind the scenes.
Telegraph Sport
revealed last year revealed that hugely popular commercial chief Simon Bamber, who has since died, was being replaced by former Miami Dolphins executive Todd Kline, while head of marketing Emma Taylor and head of retail Victoria Hawksley, who had both been at Tottenham for 15 years, departed. Long-serving legal consultant Selwyn Tash is no longer used.
Those exits followed the departure of Trevor Birch, who spent only three months in his role as director of football operations. He had replaced Rebecca Caplehorn in that job, who has remained at Tottenham with the title of director of football administration and governance.
Simon Felstein, who was Tottenham’s head of communications and had been employed by the club for 16 years, left in the summer along with another member of the media team, Joe Bacon, who joined Chelsea. Senior partnerships manager Cindy Wolf left Spurs in January to take the same role at Six Nations Rugby, while Alex Thorpe, Tottenham’s senior business development manager, has also gone.
Tottenham are currently advertising to fill eight vacant positions, including marketing, sales and communication managers.
