Man Utd & Chelsea snub explained after Newcastle United strike 'perfect' deal

Mitchell was in demand as a sporting director following his departure from AS Monaco last year given his track record of success across Europe. Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool were all linked with the 42-year-old before Newcastle swooped in to appoint him as Dan Ashworth’s replacement.

It was reported that Mitchell turned down a role at Man United before joining Newcastle. Ashworth joined Manchester United once a compensation fee was agreed between the clubs after four months on gardening leave.

And Mitchell acknowledged that he had received other offers before choosing to join Newcastle.

Explaining the decision, he told the club website: “When I left Monaco, I finished my handover, my transition where I was tasked there to appoint my successor to make sure I left the club in the best way possible.

“That's always an objective of mine when I arrive to make sure I leave [the club] in a better place. There has been offers, I don't think that's a secret and some of them have been in the media, some of them true, some of them not true.

“I wanted to come back to the UK, I wanted to take my time, make sure the next step was the right one and was a perfect fit.

“Having watched Newcastle grow exponentially over the past couple of years, the ambition, the city, actually the northern fan base being a northerner myself, the energy inside St James' Park, the ownership, the head coach.

“When you align everything you're looking for in an opportunity and I've been on a journey myself, the Premier League, I had a successful time with Southampton and Tottenham in particular and then with the move to Red Bull and to culturally diverse my experience and exposure then with Ligue 1 and Belgium, I think I'm at my optimum and I wanted to utilise that collaborative experience and put it into something I really believed in not just with my head but also my heart.

“Newcastle is the perfect fit for me personally but also professionally with the club's ambition and my ambition as well.”

Mitchell’s role will see him oversee The Magpies’ sporting investment across the first team, academy and women’s team. Particular focus will be on player recruitment given Mitchell’s background in scouting and talent spotting but also performance and player development.

The former Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur man has also made his ambitions clear after the club qualified for the Champions League last year only to miss out on Europe the following season. “We now have to plot our strategy to reach our ambition and not just get there and partake once every five years, get there and partake every year,” he added. “To put Newcastle on the global map so that everyone knows Newcastle and our name, our brand is on the tip of everybody's tongue, that's my big driver, to establish us in the global game.”