For weeks we’ve been hearing rumors that Tottenham Hotspur’s chief football officer, Fabio Paratici, has been looking for a new candidate to add to Spurs’ backroom staff. Looks like he found his man. Multiple outlets, including Football.London and The Athletic, report that Paratici has tapped former Iceland international Gretar Steinsson to fill the role of technical performance director for Tottenham, becoming Paratici’s right-hand man and “number one.” of them”. Moreover, Andy Scoulding also joins Spurs from Glasgow Rangers as an assistant to Steinsson.
Steinsson played a similar role for the past four years at Everton, becoming No.2 under Marcel Brands, before Brands and Steinsson were sacked from the club this offseason in what was seen as a backroom staff release from Everton. Prior to his time at Everton, Steinsson was technical director at League One side Fleetwood Town.
As technical performance director, one of Steinsson’s duties will be to work with Paratici to assess and identify potential transfer targets, and he is well regarded in football in this area. Alasdair Gold suggests Steinsson and Scouding’s new responsibilities will largely overlap with those of the now deceased Steve Hitchin. I don’t know Steinsson or Scoulding, but while Everton have been a bit of a mess in recent years, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the Toffees…er, questionable recruitment during this time can be put directly at Steinsson’s feet. It has been noted that his departure from Merseyside has a lot to do with Brands and former manager Rafa Benitez colliding with the head than Steinsson’s professional performances.
I know that one of Paratici’s priorities since his arrival has been to revamp Tottenham’s recruitment department. Gold notes that Paratici is someone who likes to operate by surrounding himself with talented people and then delegating responsibility to his team, and these appointments would fit nicely into that kind of structure. Hopefully these new appointments will continue to develop Spurs’ recruitment and talent identification structures; having a good system in place will absolutely pay dividends down the road.
