Chelsea recently held positive talks with Christoph Freund and even struck an agreement with the Red Bull Salzburg sporting director, but a deal could not be agreed between the two clubs.
The Blues are looking to bring a new sporting director to the club to ease the burden on Todd Boehly, who worked in the role over the summer transfer window on an interim basis. Freund has a very impressive track record at Salzburg, where he has been the Austrian club's sporting director for more than seven years.
In that time, with the help of the Austrian, Salzburg have made around £300million of profit from transfer-related business alone. Freund has a knack, along with the club's impressive scouting team, of discovering hidden talents around the world and selling them on for a huge profit.
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However, Salzburg do not want Freund to leave the club – showing how valued the sporting director is. Salzburg's managing director Stephan Reiter recently told Sky that nothing is advanced between Chelsea and Freund.
"Neither Chelsea nor Christoph Freund spoke to me or the club management about something like that," Reiter said. "Christoph recently signed a contract with us until 2026, which applies to him as well as to players, managers or coaches."
Chelsea, though, have a number of targets for the sporting director role should they fail to strike a deal with Salzburg. One of them is Michael Edwards, formerly of Liverpool, but it's understood the former Reds chief is wanting some time away from football after leaving Anfield last season.
Boehly and Behdad Eghbali approached Edwards over the summer over a recruitment role at Chelsea. The 43-year-old, however, is keen for at least a season away from the sport.
Chelsea could now turn their attention to AS Monaco sporting director Paul Mitchell. The 41-year-old, who spent his playing days at Wigan Athletic as well as five other British clubs, has been with the Ligue 1 outfit since 2020.
He started his recruitment career in 2010 at MK Dons, who named Mitchell as their Head of Recruitment. Two years later, he made the switch to Southampton where he would be taking on a similar role down on the south coast. He oversaw the signings of the likes of Nathaniel Clyne, Paulo Gazzaniga and Steven Davis.
Mauricio Pochettino then switched the south coast to north London where he took over as Tottenham manager. The Argentine coach took Mitchell with him in November 2014. In his time at Spurs, Mitchell was largely responsible for the signings of Son Heung-min, Dele Alli, Toby Alderweireld and Kieran Trippier, amongst others.
However, Mitchell reportedly fell out with Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy and then left the club in 2016. Next up was a move to Germany where he was named as Head of Recruitment and Development at RB Leipzig. In his first transfer window at the Red Bull Arena, he oversaw the signings of Nordi Mukiele and Matheus Cunha.
It was an impressive start to life in Germany and it had not gone unnoticed. Manchester United were said to be interested in Mitchell in 2019, but a year later he moved to Monaco instead, where he remains to this day.
Chelsea have already held talks with Mitchell over a role at the club, but nothing is advanced just yet. He's very experienced in football recruitment, with Boehly and Eghbali clearly a fan of what he can offer. Earlier in the summer, Mitchell flirted with the idea of returning to England.
"If there is speculation with the size of organisations that you mention, it can only be seen as a positive for myself and for Monaco," Mitchell said in an interview with The Athletic. "It shows we are doing a good job and disturbing the market in a good way.
"You can never say never. I am from England and one day – I am still a relatively young man – I will go back to the Premier League and to friends and family there as well.
"But I am still enjoying my work, and while agreements are still in place with the majority shareholder here and the processes of working are still in place, I suspect I am still going to be here. But I see it as a great reflection not only of me but the people working here that brands like that are mentioned in the same sentence as myself."
If Chelsea do end up going for Mitchell, or if they go all in on Freund, one thing is for sure – Boehly wants a new sporting director sorted before the January transfer window. It's understood the American wants to focus on other matters at the club rather than being heavily involved in transfer-related activity as well.
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