The Argentine is on the verge of taking over at Stamford Bridge (Picture: Getty)
Mauricio Pochettino is keen to have a say in Chelsea’s recruitment and would like the club to appoint his old Tottenham chief scout, according to reports.
The Argentine is now the stand-out candidate to take over the reins at Stamford Bridge and an official announcement could come shortly, with Chelsea’s owners meeting in Los Angeles to greenlight a contract offer.
Although Todd Boehly and his fellow investors have been restructuring the club to separate the coaching staff from the recruitment team – in more a German-style model – Pochettino appears keen to merge the two.
The former Spurs boss wants to be involved in transfers and, according to the Daily Mail, would ideally like to bring Steve Hitchen with him to west London to assist.
Hitchen held a variety of roles at Tottenham over two spells, re-joining as chief scout in 2017 and later becoming director of technical performance before leaving the club not long after Fabio Paratici’s arrival, with his role seemingly having become more diluted.
The former Macclesfield Town player first started working at White Hart Lane nearly two decades ago and played a part in the signings of Luka Modric and Benoit Assou-Ekotto.
He was then brought to Liverpool by Damiel Comolli – his old director of football at Tottenham – and was credited with playing a big role in the signing of Luis Suarez from Ajax.
Hitchen, right, had a very good relationship with Pochettino (Picture: Getty)
Hitchen replaced Paul Mitchell at Spurs and struck up an excellent working relationship and friendship with Pochettino.
His signings were rather less successful, however, bringing in the likes of Davinson Sanchez, Serge Aurier, Lucas Moura, Tanguy Ndombele and Giovani Lo Celso.
Hitchen had a particularly detailed knowledge of the French market when he was working exclusively as a scout, but his roles since then have been far broader.
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It remains to be seen if there is any room in Chelsea’s recruitment structure for Hitchen, with the club already having brought in technical directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart, as well as Christopher Vivell.
Pochettino is believed to want significant investment this summer and has already identified the striker position and midfield as areas that need strengthening.
However, Chelsea have an incredibly bloated squad and need to offload a horde of players before they can start splashing the cash again – both to free up space in the team and comply with Financial Fair Play rules.
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The Argentine is on the verge of taking over at Stamford Bridge.