Tottenham appoint Gretar Steinsson as Technical Performance Director

For weeks now we’ve heard rumblings that Tottenham Hotspur Managing Director of Football Fabio Paratici was looking for a new appointee to add to Spurs’ backroom staff. It looks like he found his man. Multiple outlets, including Football.London and The Athletic are reporting that Paratici has tapped former Iceland international Gretar Steinsson to serve as Tottenham’s Technical Performance Director, effectively becoming Paratici’s right hand man and his “Number Two.” In addition, Andy Scoulding is also joining Spurs from Glasgow Rangers in a role as Steinsson’s assistant.

Steinsson was in a similar role the past four years at Everton, rising to become the No. 2 under Marcel Brands, before both Brands and Steinsson were dismissed from the club this offseason in what was viewed as a clear-out of Everton’s backroom staff. Prior to his time at Everton, Steinsson served as technical director at League One side Fleetwood Town.

As Technical Performance Director, one of Steinsson’s jobs will be to work with Paratici to evaluate and identify potential transfer targets, and he is well regarded within football in that area. Alasdair Gold suggests that Steinsson and Scouding’s new responsibilities will overlap greatly with that of the now-departed Steve Hitchin. I don’t know Steinsson or Scoulding, but while Everton were a bit of a hot mess the past few years that doesn’t necessarily mean that the Toffees’... uh, questionable recruitment during this time can be directly laid at the feet of Steinsson. It was noted that his departure from Merseyside as has much to do with Brands and former manager Rafa Benitez butting heads than Steinsson’s job performance.

I know that one of Paratici’s priorities since his arrival is to revamp Tottenham’s recruitment department. Gold notes that Paratici is someone who likes to operate by surrounding himself with talented individuals and then delegating responsibilities to his team, and these appointments would fit in nicely with that kind of structure. Hopefully these new appointments will continue to develop Spurs’ recruiting and talent identification structures; a good system in place will absolutely pay dividends down the road.