Allowing Paul Mitchell to leave was one of Chesterfield's '˜biggest errors'

The club’s recruitment policy has been a top of conversation this week, with Carson revealing it was part of Gary Caldwell’s discussions with owner Dave Allen on Monday.

Caldwell is said to have been surprised at the lack of a scouting network.

And with the club now likely to bring in a chief scout, Carson looks back with regret on the decision to allow head of recruitment and development Mitchell to leave.

The former non league manager spent six years with the Spireites and was credited with playing a big part in the recruitment of the likes of Liam Cooper, Sam Clucas and Jimmy Ryan.

He was just one year into a five-year contract when he walked away.

Mitchell went on to join Sheffield United and has helped in their quest to build a title-winning squad.

Carson said: “Absolutely it was a mistake, one of the biggest errors that’s been made.

“It was a massive loss for the football club.”

Carson revealed that a breakdown in the relationship between then-manager Danny Wilson and Mitchell was behind the latter’s exit.

Wilson was quizzed at the time on how Chesterfield would deal with the gap in their scouting system and insisted: “We’ll deal with it quite easily.”

Towards the end of his tenure as Town boss, Wilson said that he and his coaching staff were handling most of the scouting duties and travelling to watch matches.

Carson said: “It was out of our control.

“He had a really good working relationship with John Sheridan, Paul Cook, Dean Saunders and then it went sour.

“Danny wasn’t using him and it was a bad thing allowing them to fall out like that.”

The company secretary says he will work with Caldwell, within the club’s financial limitations, to improve their scouting system.

“We’ll definitely be looking to bring someone in and possibly one or two other scouts, it’s something Gary feels very strongly about.”