AS Monaco football chief Paul Mitchell has recalled the doubts he had to battle at Tottenham during Heung-min Son's first months with the club.

Mitchell has opened up on his time in north London and the struggles of his first year.

"I took quite a lot of criticism in my first year at Tottenham, for some of the decisions and Sonny was at the centre of that and it's a little bit of learning for me, that sometimes players need time," he admitted, in an interview with Sky Sports. "They're human beings, they need to settle. Sonny had a great record at Hamburg and [Bayer] Leverkusen.

"I remember there was this narrative that started to grow internally and externally as well, that he wasn't a good finisher. I remember one of the staff members saying to me, when I was watching a training session and I said 'you're wrong' because his history shows in two different clubs and Leverkusen being a big club, that he's a very astute finisher off both sides.

"What we've seen over the years since, after that first year of integration and sometimes you needing that patience because you know the quality of the individual, is everything we saw," Mitchell added.

"The due diligence that we did as a scouting and recruitment department just coming to fruition and then obviously that coach effect of growing to be consistent and then to be what I think is going to go down as a great player in Premier League history."