RB Leipzig talent spotter Paul Mitchell reveals why German clubs want more young England stars
SunSport exclusively speaks to the Brit who has been tasked with leading player recruitment and development at the Bundesliga side after quitting Tottenham last year
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MORE than a few eyebrows were raised when Paul Mitchell was announced as the new RB Leipzig sporting director in February.
Mitchell moved to the Bundesliga side after leaving Tottenham where he helped sign the likes of Dele Alli, Kieran Trippier and Toby Alderweireld.
Forced to retire when he was just 27, Mitchell has earned a reputation as one of the game's top talent-spotters during his time at MK Dons, Southampton and Spurs.
The Bundesliga is now the perfect environment for the Manchester-born talent spotter.
In Germany the focus is on youth and player development while Premier League clubs would rather spend huge sums chasing instant success.
He exclusively told SunSport: "It’s hard to be honest, you look at the severe pressure the Premier League coaches are under, especially at the top.
“England are coming into a rich vein of talent from winning the World Cup at Under-17 level to the senior side (World Cup semi-final).
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England have the quality coming through and must get chance to shine insists Paul Mitchell“We have to be reflective that we have a lot of good players in England and they need to play to get those capable minutes between the ages 17 and 21.
“England have a great environment, coaching system and understanding of talent to give these guys a real platform to go on and be successful.
“Our managers in the Premier League don’t get time - so how are we ever going to get to a point where these players are allowed to learn on the job or make mistakes?
Star maker's amazing role of honour
PAUL Mitchell's reputation for spotting and recruiting top talent is second to none.
During his time at MK Dons, Southampton, Tottenham and RB Leipzig he is credited with finding stars including:
Dele Alli (current transfer value £90m)
Sadio Mane (£60m)
Son Heung-Min (£45m)
Toby Alderweireld (£35m)
Kieran Trippier (£35m)
Dusan Tadic (£15m)
“Some of the coaches in the Premier League have some of the biggest reputations in the world, but that doesn’t mean they are given time as well.
“At Southampton, there was always a natural appetite to develop talent because of their historic success.
“I think working at Tottenham with Mauricio Pochettino who has a high recognition for young talent, working with an academy director like John McDermott who buys into what we were trying to achieve there.”
Mitchell began his playing career at Wigan in 2000, moved to MK Dons in 2004, but injury forced Mitchell to retire aged 27.
Karl Robinson was MK Dons boss at the time and created a Head of Recruitment role for Mitchell at Stadium MK.
Mitchell was instrumental in bringing Alli through the League 1 side’s system.
He moved to Southampton in 2012 and his eye for talent came to national attention developing young British stars Luke Shaw, James Ward-Prowse, Calum Chambers and Nathaniel Clyne.
He married those young players at St Mary’s with foreign imports like Sadio Mane, Dejan Lovren and Toby Alderweireld.
Mitchell has replaced Ralf Rangnick who has taken over as Head Coach after the summer exit of Ralph Hasenhuttl, so the scrutiny of his work comes from the board and from the man he took over from.
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He added: “It was about sharing our knowledge base when I worked with Les Reed at Southampton, he came at the job as a sporting director from his coaching experience with the FA and with Charlton as a manager.
“And in Ralf, I see a lot of similarities (with Les Reed) in terms of their perception and how they facilitate the role.
“I come at the job from a recruitment and player development angle having not had that substantial coaching experience, so I recognise a lot of synergies from our philosophies of doing the same role.”
The penny seems to be dropping with young English players who now realise meaningful game time is the only way to progress and there’s plenty of that on offer in the Bundesliga.
Six English kids featured in the German top-flight last season with 18-year-old Jadon Sancho’s rapid development at Borussia Dortmund has been rewarded with an England senior call-up.
Arsenal’s Reiss Nelson is having the time of his life on loan at Hoffenheim and has already hit five goals.
Mitchell warned: “The British market is high on everyone’s agenda in Europe and not just Red Bull’s or just Germany.
“I think there has been a change in the market from a few years ago about English people and players that they don’t travel - I wanted to prove that was the wrong perception.
“Young guys that are moving to Europe are showing that is wrong as well, they are performing to a very advanced level and I think the world has become a smaller place, now the first questions on a young guys mind is have I got the opportunity to play first-team football?
“And then everything cascades from that and if the answer is yes then we have the chance to have conversations with highly talented individuals and offer ourselves as an extremely good destination for that talent.”
Mitchell is enjoying adapting to his new surroundings in Leipzig and learning German.
He admits being a bad cook, but the upside of that is he ventures out to eat in a vibrant and diverse part of Eastern Germany that is one of the fastest growing cities in the country.
Mitchell added: “The guys have been very patient with me and I’m getting to a point where I understand quite a lot but my Mancunian accent makes it difficult to converse too much.
“I’m taking one lesson a week, it’s coming slowly.
"My German teacher is being very patient but I’m understanding a lot and tried to elude to understanding less than what I do, that sometimes helps.
“Because we are so culturally diverse, the common language is English, but I think it’s respectful I take my lessons when I can and learn as much while I’m here.”
No one has come close to breaking Bayern Munich’s tight grip on the Bundesliga title, with clubs in Germany fearful their best players with gravitate to the Bavarian giants.
RB Lepizig has an average squad age of 23 and are determined to challenge the status quo by investing their time, money and emotion in youth.
He continued: “The driving force and the undercurrent is to do it our way, the Red Bull way.
“Keeping to our beliefs and not trying to be the same as Dortmund or Bayern buying older and more ready-made players, grow and develop your own talent, have a longer-term plan and strategy.
“I think that was one the reasons the club liked the idea of convincing me to come here and try to look at the bigger picture, trying not to get too induced by the short-term.
“And really arrive at a point in the next three to five years we can be extremely successful and proud of we did it our way.”