bus-conductor good post with plenty of relevant content. Thanks.
I've excerpted the list of players bought since Mitchell left because it represents signings made without a true, hardline, DoF structure, and instead on a system where the Head Coach outlines the type of players and positions he wants, and the Chief Scout prepares a list of options.
Of course the DoF structure is intended to ensure continuity regardless of who the head coach is, whereas our current structure is far more Head Coach-led.
Sissoko appears to have been an opportunistic Levy buy (Ncastle were going down). Whoever scouted him, paid that large a transfer fee, and gave him two lucrative contracts, is an idiot. My considered opinion is that the prime culprit is Daniel Levy.
Lucas Moura and Aurier were both opportunistic buys because PSG wanted to sell. Moura was a January punt. Aurier was bought as the "Ivorian Kyle Walker" to replace our outgoing player at half the price to provide an athletic RB to rotate with the more technical & unathletic Trippier.
Llorente was brought in as the highly experienced back up for Kane. Now Hitchen's job was to find somebody better, and ideally younger, but it's entirely possible that Poch vetoed all the alternative options.
Davinson Sanchez was considered perhaps the best young pure defender in Europe when we prised him out of Ajax. We'd already heard Mourinho highlighting his lack of ball-playing ability, so we knew he wasn't a de Ligt-style defender. But many people thought we'd pulled off a coup because if we'd waited another year it was possible Sanchez would have cost even more. With hindsight, we probably did pay too much, but the club was buying a young, fast, CB who'd already played in a European final to provide a succession plan for Verts & Toby. Surely this is precisely the kind of move a DoF would have advocated?
Foyth and Sessegnon were also talented young players bought with the future in mind, as any DoF would want. Foyth was almost certainly not the product of Hitchen's scouting, but of Poch's contacts in the game. Sessegnon was wanted by lots of PL clubs. What we don't know is whether Hitchen & Poch saw him a LB to eventually replace Rose and/or Davies, or as a wide AM.
Ndombele was one of the hottest talents in Europe. The club did very well to sign him. Now, should our scouting and medical staff have identified any physical issues? Yes. But I wonder how much of the criticism Ndombele gets is because of his gait, his running style. Ndombele lopes, but that forward leaning posture often enables him to escape from pressure. And then he gets his head up and plays aggressive forward passes better than anyone else at our club.
Lo Celso had just had an outstanding season at Betis, and was clearly a Poch target. I think he will become a key Spurs midfielder. Ndombele is 23 now, and GLC 24. Both should have their peak years ahead of them.
Bergwijn is clearly a Hitchen signing, with Amazon revealing we'd been scouting Stevie & stalking his family for at least 2 years. The jury is still out, but he clearly has talent and is much better at linking play than Moura. Again, I think a DoF approves this recommendation from his Chief Scout.
Hojbjerg is a Mourinho signing.
Doherty is a Mendes signing.
The only older players on that list, with little resale value, are Llorente (a short term option to fill a squad place) and Doherty (who Mourinho had the hots for, and Mendes facilitated).
All the rest are young, talented, players. We can argue about how talented they are. And it's always the case that some signings are mega flops, a few are huge successes, and most are in the good to meh range.
Add to that in his first role at the club he was said to be the scout that identified Modric and Assou-Ekotto for us as signings - and then went on to identify Suarez for Liverpool
