Ange Postecoglou wants Tottenham to get their transfer business done early in January and that aligns with the ideas of new chief scout Rob Mackenzie, a man who knows how to find top centre-backs.

Mackenzie will begin work at Spurs next week, following the club's new technical director Johan Lange in making the switch from Aston Villa. It will be a triple move between the clubs with Frederik Leth, the head of football research at the Midlands side, also set to switch to Tottenham following years spent alongside Lange at Villa and previously FC Copenhagen.

Mackenzie is making a return to Spurs after working for the club in 2015/16 for 19 months as head of player identification. Before that, the now 38-year-old spent almost six years at Leicester City, playing a part in the signings of players like Riyad Mahrez, N'Golo Kante, Jamie Vardy and many of the Foxes' title-winning side.

Postecoglou told football.london this week that the new recruitment team will help facilitate his desire to get new faces into the club early in the January transfer window.

"It is important they come in now. The January window, like for every club, is an important one. My view on the January one is that if you can get your business done early in the window it certainly is more helpful because you leave it until the end of January and sometimes what you try to gain you've missed that opportunity by waiting a whole month," he said.

"That's sometimes out of your control so having [them] in is good. I'm sure we'll have a lot of discussions between now and then and I'm looking forward to working with him."

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In an interview with Sky Sports back in 2017, Mackenzie spoke about the best ways to have success in the January transfer window and his views echo Postecoglou's.

"Clubs with definitive styles of play and a clear recruitment philosophy are best placed to maximise opportunities," he said. "Without those things in place, it is easy to move from one target to another and struggle to work out who is most suitable and who represents best value.

"In my opinion, clubs abroad, most notably in Germany, appear to approach the January transfer window differently. Even if deals are done in January, they tend to finalise them earlier in order to give the selling club the best chance to plan for their player's departure. By doing so they give themselves the best chance of acquiring suitable players at a good price."

Mackenzie added that while planning properly ensures success, those clubs with their ear to the ground with agents can also seize upon unexpected opportunities during the difficult winter window.

"January is a notoriously difficult window to sign players as quality and value for money are hard to find and the reasons behind players being available tend not to be positive ones," he explained. "In my experience, clubs in England tend to look for players who can hit the ground running and positively affect things immediately in January, and given that is the remit it is usually the clubs who are struggling who are the most eager to make this change."

He added: "Other clubs' reluctance to sell their best players halfway through a season, means that clubs generally have to pay over and above a player's prospective value in order to sign someone who is currently in form.

"As someone working within a recruitment department during a transfer window you are constantly getting updates from agents as to the evolving situations of their respective clients and you have a number of players who you want to remain in the loop with. It might be that certain players move within the market which then frees up an opportunity that was previously unavailable to you."

Postecoglou made it clear to football.london during and after the summer transfer window that he wanted to sign a second senior centre-back to back up the arrival of Micky van de Ven, particularly after he agreed to sell Davinson Sanchez to Galatasaray after the English window had closed.

That new centre-back will be one of the priorities in the January transfer window and in Mackenzie, Postecoglou will have someone who knows how to sign a top centre-back for Spurs, with the chief scout having played his part in bringing Toby Alderweireld to north London in 2015.

When speaking to Sky Sports two years later, Mackenzie explained the process of picking the perfect centre-back in that moment.

"I think when assessing central defenders it is especially important to acknowledge the data that is in front of you whilst also asking questions of it and trying to look beyond it," he said. "When scouts are assessing central defenders, questions relating to reliability and solidity are often in the forefront of your mind. Therefore, if a player has a track record of having demonstrated these qualities it generates confidence that they can do so again.

"When I was at Tottenham Hotspur we assessed a number of prospective central defensive partners for Jan Vertonghen, but it soon became apparent that the stand-out candidate was Toby Alderweireld.

"He is an interesting case study because his statistical performance profile wasn't necessarily that significant but there were key themes associated with him that meant he was a really good fit."

Mackenzie explained that Alderweireld was signed using different factors, including his ability to handle the workload of the Premier League and the pressure of playing at a top club, his winning mentality, versatility, Champions League experience, his defensive record and previous experience of playing alongside Vertonghen.

With Van de Ven and Cristian Romero currently starring together, Tottenham and Postecoglou will be hoping that Mackenzie and the new recruitment team can pull another Alderweireld out of the bag to add even more strength in depth just when they need it for the second half of the season.