Opinion: Steve Hitchen was a scapegoat and deserves an apology

Steve Hitchen became an extremely polarizing figure at Tottenham after the Amazon All or Nothing documentary, he was heavily critiqued for saying he “hated” the January transfer window, which, doesn’t sound great in a vacuum, however, most clubs struggle to do business and often January is a tough month for the very large majority of clubs, cause teams don’t want to ship out their best players during the month, making it hard to adequately shift and replace players in your team.

However, this quote just made Hitchen an easy target for some supporters, who were looking for someone to take out their frustration on for the club’s poor recruitment and lack of spending in the transfer market.

12 months later, I think it’s fair to say Steve deserves an apology from those Tottenham supporters. Anytime there was a negative transfer rumour about us in any way, the replies would be filed with “Mr I hate transfers is at it again” and things of that nature, as fans took that quote out of context and used it to fuel agendas.

Fabio Paratici has struggled to do the business that Tottenham needed to do this summer. He’s not the only one to fall into that trap at Tottenham, in fact, almost all his predecessors have had the same issue, with Daniel Levy always being known for not wanting to open up the chequebook and being very stingy when it comes to player valuations, making it hard to sell unwanted players who have outstayed their welcome.

Paratici, Hitchen, and many of their predecessors struggles to get the necessary business done for the club in the market just leads you to a conclusion that maybe these directors of football aren’t always the root of the problem (there certainly are exceptions to that, for example, the way Baldini wasted the Bale money was really poor and he should be blamed for that)

Daniel Levy will always be the root of Tottenham’s struggles in the transfer market. ENIC’s lack of willingness to invest money in the club so we can make signings also doesn’t help. But, in particular, Levy’s stinginess and egotistical nature will hold Tottenham Hotspur back for as long as he’s at the club.

Spurs fans need to realise that directors of football will forever have their hands tied for as long as Levy and ENIC are here. They should be the ones with the targets on their back, not an at-the-time technical performance director who was hung out to dry with an out of context quote on a tv series, etc.

Steve Hitchen, Spurs fans should be sorry for the way that they dragged you through the mud. You were never the root of the problem at board level.