What does a director of football do?
Directors of football look after all football operations in clubs, says Les Reed, who, as head of football development, worked with Mauricio Pochettino and Mitchell at Southampton.
He told BBC Sport what the role encompasses:
"That can be recruitment, which takes up most of your time, contract negotiation, player development, the development of all teams from the academy through to the first-team squad, and being responsible for the manager.
"A technical director is slightly different in that you might manage all the support departments but might not be involved in transfers or contract negotiation."
Effectively, they are in place to consider the medium to longer term and maintain a playing philosophy, while the manager or head coach deals with day-to-day operations.
Begiristain told the BBC in September: "I have to work for the next two seasons. You have to understand who wants to move, who wants to stay and what the risk is of losing players.
"You always have to be working on new talent coming. Then you see the project, the philosophy, the way to work, a way to play."
Former Tottenham director of football and Liverpool director of football strategy Damien Comolli has said it gives a "competitive advantage" to clubs because it allows more "objective" decisions to be made.
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Directors of football look after all football operations in clubs, says Les Reed, who, as head of football development, worked with Mauricio Pochettino and Mitchell at Southampton.
He told BBC Sport what the role encompasses:
"That can be recruitment, which takes up most of your time, contract negotiation, player development, the development of all teams from the academy through to the first-team squad, and being responsible for the manager.
"A technical director is slightly different in that you might manage all the support departments but might not be involved in transfers or contract negotiation."
Effectively, they are in place to consider the medium to longer term and maintain a playing philosophy, while the manager or head coach deals with day-to-day operations.
Begiristain told the BBC in September: "I have to work for the next two seasons. You have to understand who wants to move, who wants to stay and what the risk is of losing players.
"You always have to be working on new talent coming. Then you see the project, the philosophy, the way to work, a way to play."
Former Tottenham director of football and Liverpool director of football strategy Damien Comolli has said it gives a "competitive advantage" to clubs because it allows more "objective" decisions to be made.
Why do Man Utd need a director of football?
Manchester United are set to appoint their first director of football but what does the position involve?
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