Paul Mitchell has resigned from his post as Tottenham Hotspur’s head of recruitment after he felt his dream job turn into a nightmare. The 34-year-old was prised from Southampton in November 2014 to oversee the club’s recruitment and analysis departments and he followed the manager, Mauricio Pochettino, from St Mary’s to north London.

Mitchell had worked closely and productively with Pochettino at Southampton and the reasons for his decision to leave Tottenham are not linked to any breakdown with the Argentinian.

He had simply had enough at White Hart Lane and the frustrations were so great and the job satisfaction so little that he chose to inform the board of his desire to quit.

It has been suggested that Mitchell struggled to work with the chairman, Daniel Levy, the notoriously hard-line negotiator, who has long taken a hands-on role in player recruitment. Mitchell will now serve a period of notice, which will include the remainder of the summer transfer window. He is a diplomatic but fiery character and, once his mind is made up, there can be no changing it.

On Mitchell’s watch the club have signed eight senior players, with the latest being Victor Wanyama and Vincent Janssen this summer. The stand-out successes have been Toby Alderweireld and Dele Alli but the latter was pushed by David Pleat, the club’s former manager, who continues to act as a part-time consultant to Levy. There have been questions asked over Son Heung-min and Clinton Njie, who arrived last summer for a combined £32m.

Leicester City, who lost their head of recruitment, Steve Walsh, may now attempt to hire Mitchell.