Steve Hitchen quits Spurs recruitment role amid Everton interest

Steve Hitchen has resigned from his scouting and recruitment post at Tottenham and is under consideration for a similar role at Everton, who are restructuring under the new manager, Frank Lampard.

Hitchen had been marginalised on the recruitment side at Spurs since the appointment of Fabio Paratici as the managing director of football last summer and, having considered his position for a number of months, he has decided to move on. The 45-year-old met the chairman, Daniel Levy, on Tuesday to ask to be released from his contract.

Everton, who are in the throes of a chaotic season, have been operating without a director of football, head of recruitment and manager of scouting after the respective departures of Marcel Brands, Grétar Steinsson and Dan Purdy were announced in early December.

Newcastle also have an interest in Hitchen as they, too, look to reshape their recruitment operation.

Hitchen, a former player at Blackburn, Macclesfield and Bangor City, went to Spurs as the chief scout in February 2017, having worked at the club between 2005-2010, initially as a European scout based in France and then in a more international role.

Hitchen returned to Spurs as they regrouped after the resignation of the head of recruitment, Paul Mitchell, who was working a notice period. Hitchen would be promoted in September 2020 to the role of technical performance director, which the club said would have “responsibility for scouting, performance and recruitment analysis and youth recruitment”.

Despite being friends, Hitchen and Paratici felt like an odd combination in the sense that their most important job was the same – to buy and sell first-team players. The Guardian understands that Hitchen had little involvement in the transfer