Former Tottenham director shares his honest verdict on Daniel Levy

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Former Tottenham Hotspur director Steve Hitchen has offered his verdict on Daniel Levy, believing him to be one of the best in terms of honesty.

Tottenham’s recruitment setup has been through big changes in recent years.

Steve Hitchen was a key man after stepping up from chief scout to technical director back in 2019, but became something of a meme after the release of Tottenham’s ‘All or Nothing’ series in 2020.

Hitchen noted in that show that he completely hated the January transfer window, leading to jokes from Tottenham fans.

Hitchen’s influence diminished a little after Fabio Paratici’s arrival in 2021 and, come February 2022, he decided to leave Tottenham.

Spurs have now seen Paratici take on more of an advisory role after being hit with a FIFA ban and Johan Lange is now in as technical director after leaving Aston Villa earlier this season.

Steve Hitchen shares verdict on Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy

Hitchen was linked with the likes of Everton and Celtic but has taken a rather unexpected step.

Now the director of football for the Unique Sports Group agency, Hitchen is involved in representing a number of Premier League players.

Reece James, Anthony Gordon, Jacob Ramsay, Marc Guehi, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and current Tottenham winger Brennan Johnson are all on the Unique Sports Group books.

Hitchen has stepped back from the recruitment side of the game and has now spoken to BBC Sport about the transfer window and his former boss Daniel Levy.

Spurs chairman Levy has a reputation as a difficult negotiator and Hitchen does admit that, whilst Levy is ‘quite fair’, he ‘fights and fights and fights’ for deals.

Hitchen feels that Levy ‘normally gets what he wants’ but so does any player involved too, adding that Levy receives so much criticism but he is actually ‘one of the best’ to work for because of his honesty.

“Daniel takes a lot of criticism but he is one of the best to work with in terms of at least you know where you are. Even at the end it was good. He understood why I wanted to leave,” said Hitchen.

“He is quite fair. He fights and fights and fights, but in the end both parties have to be happy otherwise the deal doesn’t happen. He normally gets what he wants and the player gets what he wants,” he added.

Levy has often been criticised for not spending enough to get Tottenham to the next level, but Spurs tend to be pretty well-managed financially.

Maybe the time will come for Levy to move on in the near future, but Hitchen certainly seems to hold him in high regard and Tottenham seem to be in safe hands whilst Levy is in charge.