Tottenham have brought scout Steve Hitchen back to the club.
Former Tottenham Hotspur director of football Damien Comolli has told The Independent that Steve Hitchen is ‘incredibly well-connected’ after returning to White Hart Lane this week.
Spurs appear to be making changes to their recruitment and scouting departments, as scout Ian Broomfield left the club last month, whilst head of recruitment Paul Mitchell is serving a notice period having resigned over the summer.
This week though, Tottenham have added a scout to their ranks, with Steve Hitchen returning to the club to aid the club’s search for new signings.
Hitchen has already had one spell as a scout for Tottenham, but left the club under Harry Redknapp’s stewardship in order to join Liverpool, whilst he’s also held more recent positions with Queens Park Rangers and Derby County.
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A highly-respected scout who worked as co-director of recruitment at Derby earlier this season, Hitchen has often been credited with being the man behind Liverpool’s move to sign Luis Suarez from Ajax in 2011.
Former Liverpool Director of Football Damien Comolli in the stands
Now, former Tottenham director of football Damien Comolli – who worked in the same role for Liverpool during Hitchen’s time at Anfield – has confirmed the story about Suarez, and raved about Spurs’ latest scout.
Comolli has told The Independent that Hitchen had great knowledge about Suarez having scouted him for Tottenham, and he helped Liverpool steal a march on their rivals to sign Suarez, before he became a hero on Merseyside.
The Frenchman added that Hitchen is ‘very dedicated’ and ‘incredibly well-connected’ in the scouting community, suggesting that most scouts in Europe are familiar with his work – all of which points to Tottenham making a smart move by bringing Hitchen back to White Hart Lane.
“Steve was the main reason why we signed Suarez,” said Comolli. “He knew Suarez very, very well from his time at Spurs. And he got the intel that Ajax had made Suarez available for transfer. Nobody else knew that. It gave us a head-start. That is typical of Steve.”
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“Steve is very dedicated and committed with a great work ethic. He is incredibly well-connected and his network is very, very good. So he is the centre of a web of information. He is very popular in the scouting community, if you speak to scouts from anywhere in Europe, they all know Steve,” he added.
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