Daniel Levy has confirmed that John McDermott, the Tottenham Hotspur head of coaching and development, has taken on the responsibility of overseeing every age group at the club below first-team level.

McDermott, who has been a target for Manchester United, has built his reputation as a shrewd judge of young players at the club’s academy and he has developed a close working relationship with the manager, Mauricio Pochettino, and the head of recruitment, Paul Mitchell.

The trio discuss new signings and, more pertinently for the club’s current project, whether they can promote talent from the youth ranks. Pochettino routinely includes academy players in his training sessions and each of them comes on the recommendation of McDermott.

Pochettino is determined to put structures in place that will lead to long-term solidity and success, and McDermott – together with Mitchell – is a key part of the process. Pochettino took Mitchell from Southampton, the club at which he previously worked, to replace Franco Baldini, who left his post as sporting director last September.

There has been no fanfare related to McDermott’s increased influence at the club but Levy, the chairman, offered an insight when he spoke to the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust last week.

The THST published the minutes of its meeting, writing that Levy had “explained how John McDermott was now in charge of everything below the first team, including the under-21s,” and how “there was regular dialogue with McDermott, Pochettino and Mitchell regarding recruitment and talent.

“All three would be considering whether we have the talent under our first team that we could promote up. The approach is always to try and promote up, if possible.”

The THST also wrote that Levy had said the decision to loan the centre-half Federico Fazio to Sevilla last month was possible only because Pochettino, McDermott and Mitchell were “confident in the abilities of a younger player to step up to the first team, if required”.

The 18-year-old Cameron Carter-Vickers is a part of this thinking.