The Leicester City miracle, let the fans know Steve Walsh, a magical football old man. It turns out that in addition to coaches and players, there are other people who can significantly help the team achieve good results in professional football from a competitive level.
At the forefront of professional football, it's not just a competition between players and coaches on both sides. This time, I want to introduce a professional from outside the stadium. He's not a coach or a player, but he can make a team stronger.
In June 2020, Paul Mitchell, who had been RB Leipzig's sporting director, left the club to join Ligue 1 powerhouse Monaco as sporting director.
I believe that for many fans, the name of Paul Mitchell is quite unfamiliar, the 40-year-old Briton seems to be unknown, but in fact has a good personal ability. He has left some achievements at Milton Keynes, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur and RB Leipzig, attracting the attention of major European football clubs.
Paul Mitchell was a former professional, but his ten-year professional football career since 1999 has not been smooth, starting with Wigan Athletic and playing for lower League teams in England such as Halifax Town, Swindon and Milton Keynes.
After retiring in 2009, mitchell, 28, began working as a scout at Milton Keynes, where he quickly became chief scout. During this period, as a scout, he recommended many potential rookies to the team at that time, including Ali and Badlock.
On 6 January 2012, Paul Mitchell moved to Southampton as chief scout. This year, he was only 31 years old, who had not succeeded on the court.
During his Premier League Saints days, Mitchell worked with former FA technical director Reed and others to build a powerful scouting system, the "Black Box", as the name suggests, the "Black Box".
This black box can help managers make competitive decisions from another perspective by collecting and analyzing data, and the data in it covers players from different countries and regions around the world.
Something like this was not fully popular in world football at the time, and many clubs have taken it very seriously today.
In the 12-13 season, Southampton played in the Premier League every 8 years, and Paul Mitchell signed right-back Klein for a transfer fee of 2 million euros, and Luke Shaw and Ward Prouss, who were still in youth training, were promoted to the first team.
In the 13-14 season, Mitchell met Argentine young coach Pochettino, and while the team lineup was maintained, he helped the team successfully buy the Kenyan beast Wanyama, who helped the Celtics beat Barca, and signed Lyon's main center-back Lovren in Ligue 1.
This season's Southampton, although it is only the second season after many years of upgrading, is different from the previous stoke city, Sunderland and other traditional English teams that adhere to the local style, and play a more modern style of football in English football.
The Saints, who have a modern young squad, finally achieved a good record in the second season after the promotion, scoring 56 points in 38 rounds of the Premier League, successfully ranking 8th in the league.
The Southampton Youth Army in the 13-14 season attracted enough attention at the time, and Luke Shaw, Ward Prouss, Lallana, Chambers, Fonte, Lovren, J Ronaldo, Lambert, Schneiderling, Cork and others formed a team with a neat age structure and great future potential.
In the 14-15 season, Southampton lost personnel in the third season after promotion, but the strength of the team was even enhanced by the reinforcements, with Mane, Tadić, Pele and Sean Long moving in, and the team also loaned to the likes of Alderweireld and Bertrand.
Of course, this season, other teams in the league have also strengthened, with Southampton successfully scoring 60 points in 38 rounds and finally finishing 7th in the Premier League.
After just 2 seasons, the Saints, who were originally promoted in the league, have always had a rather mature lineup, and many players in the team are coveted even by the major European giants.
However, in the winter of 2014, Paul Mitchell announced his departure from Southampton, and six months after the departure of manager Pochettino, he also came to Tottenham Hotspur to successfully serve as chief scout.
In the 15-16 season, under the leadership of the Argentine young manager, Tottenham Hotspur once had the impression of a defensive team, because the team had players who could be both hard. Alderweireld and Trippier became part of the team, as well as Son Heung-min, who signed from Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga for a transfer fee of 30 million euros, and Tottenham Hotspur, who successfully played the youth storm, once won the Champions League runner-up.
Retiring at the age of 28 and ending his professional career, Paul Mitchell did not give up the road of football, switching to scouting instead allowed him to start another more suitable football journey.
Through Milton Keynes, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur, RB Leipzig and Monaco, Mitchell has helped the club improve their squad and improve their talent selection, which is built on the already solid foundation of European football.
Football is constantly moving forward, and at the top of today's professional football, there are such skilled and discerning professionals.