Mauricio Pochettino wants greater control of transfer policy at Tottenham Hotspur and has told Daniel Levy that he does not want him to find a direct replacement for the club’s departing head of recruitment, Paul Mitchell.

The Tottenham chairman is likely to bow to Pochettino’s wishes and move away from the sporting director model he introduced at White Hart Lane.

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Mitchell is due to leave Tottenham in December after handing in his notice last August, less than two years after joining from Southampton, where he also worked with Pochettino. Contrary to many reports, the 35-year-old was not recruited by Pochettino, and the manager simply gave his blessing to an appointment initiated by Tottenham’s former sporting director, Franco Baldini, with Mitchell taking over many of the