From the Chronicle. I won't post a link to their website as it'll blow up your device!
Former colleague Les Reed with a little more on Newcastle's Paul Mitchell:
"Paul is very passionate about what he does and is very dedicated to it. He works very hard but he's always looking to improve things, find another angle and find another way of doing something.
He's always right at the cutting edge, which was a big part of our strategy at Southampton and the way we did things. It enabled us to recruit some significantly valuable players and achieve some great success with those players.
Our team at Southampton, of which Paul was a significant part, was probably way ahead of the game at the time and he knows that part of the industry inside, out. From the time he joined us from MK Dons to his time at Monaco, he's widened his network, made more contacts, enhanced his reputation and learned a lot.
He's also very curious. He's always looking to try and improve things so I think he will do very well for Newcastle.
Succession planning is one of Paul's strengths. He will be very big on knowing not just where good players are, but how they fit into Newcastle's strategy and culture at the club. When one player moves on, he will be ready with a list of replacements. That's what he does and he's very good at it.
I think it's a perfect fit. He's just what Newcastle need because in terms of the recent takeover and the new ownership, they have approached everything in a very calculated way. They have not rushed into things.
We have seen other clubs with high-profile takeovers seemingly throwing money at everything and buying players left, right and centre. Newcastle have not done that. They have built their infrastructure very carefully and Paul is probably one of the last pieces of the jigsaw now to go in there.
He will give the club a much wider knowledge of global football. It's not only where he's worked, but also the markets that those clubs have operated in.
The Red Bull group operated all over the world, so he will bring fresh knowledge and experience from that as well as the direct contact with those clubs and the leagues that they play in. The net will be spread a lot wider and that applies to the network that Paul has built over time
