Man Utd and Chelsea beware! Mitchell’s Monaco spell shows he’s no saviour
Robin Bairner
- Updated: 18 Apr 2022 15:48 CDT
- 3 min read
Chelsea have been linked with a potential move for Monaco sporting director Paul Mitchell – but that does not necessarily spell positive news for the Stamford Bridge club.
The Athletic reports that the parties interested in taking over the running of the Blues, who will be sold after Roman Abramovich’s assets were frozen, have a technical director high up on their list of priorities.
This is where Mitchell comes in. However, his recent performance has been questionable, to such a degree that Monaco have even been reported to be sacking him.
Equally, though, Manchester United have been closely linked with the Englishman, notably because he is a close ally of Ralf Rangnick from his time in Germany.
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Who is Paul Mitchell?
Mitchell is a former Wigan Athletic and MK Dons player who has become better known for his off-field qualities than those he displayed in a relatively brief career in professional football.
After working initially with MK Dons in their recruitment team, he moved to Southampton in 2012, where he would gain notoriety working under Mauricio Pochettino, who subsequently took him to Tottenham. After a fall out with owner Daniel Levy, he moved to RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga in February 2018.
He spent little more than two years in Germany before moving to Monaco, where is his presently working as a sporting director.
Disappointing transfer results
While Mitchell’s resumé is undoubtedly strong, there have been questions posed to his effectiveness since he departed Tottenham.
At Leipzig, he struck gold when it came to recruiting youngster players such as Matheus Cunha and Nordi Mukiele, but there is a sense that his approach was scattergun, and while there were a couple of huge successes, there were plenty of misses, too.
These misses have been altogether more apparent at Monaco, who have struggled in each of the two campaigns that Mitchell has overseen. Although the principality club have been on an improved run lately, winning four successive matches, they still only sit sixth in Ligue 1 and are far from assured European qualification.
One of the reasons for this, according to angry supporters, is the club’s poor performance in the transfer market.
Mitchell has overseen the arrival of flop after flop. January 2021’s big-money acquisition Krepin Diatta has just three goals to his credit in what has been an injury-hit spell, while Myron Boadu has performed only modestly better since arriving from AZ last summer. Meanwhile, Jean Lucas and Ismail Jakobs, who both arrived under Mitchell’s watch, have struggled to make an impression.
Countering that, though, Vanderson has been excellent since signing up from Gremio in January.
Nevertheless, the overall impression of Mitchell in Monaco is poor, which is a warning signal to Chelsea and Man Utd over what to expect.
