Tottenham Hotspur’s Managing Director of Football Fabio Paratici spent years at Juventus, where the Serie A club would win transfer races with some of the biggest clubs in Europe.
Paratici spoke to Spurs TV (via Sky Sports) regarding the north London club following these steps during the transfer window. The club chief stated Tottenham is among the top clubs in Europe and needs to get used to winning and losing some races for top players.
“It’s normal for us to be in the middle of this kind of rumors, and it’s also normal when you start the race and to fight to sign big players,” Paratici said. “We are a big club, there are 10-12 big clubs in the world, so it’s normal when you start to race or to fight to sign a big player.”
“Of course, you have somebody that deserves to sign this player too. Sometimes you win, as what happened with (Cristian) Romero in the summer, and sometimes you can lose the race. I think the worst and strange thing is not being in the race.”
In the past, Juventus has beat out the best clubs to land players like Matthijs de Ligt, who was the captain of Ajax despite the young age. This January window, the Serie A side landed Dušan Vlahović, which saw various teams pursuing the striker, including Tottenham.
Nonetheless, the Spurs club chief stated that they also don’t want to sign players only to add to the squad. Paratici details that making transfers for the sake of it doesn’t do the club any good.
“We want to sign players who can improve our team; we don’t sign just to sign. That is not useful for the club, not useful for the coach, not useful for everybody,” Paratici said.
“There are some positions where we searched and find solutions and others where we don’t have this kind of opportunities. It’s OK, we go ahead, we go forward with our players, and we are happy about it.”
Interviews about “being in the race” to take the focus off Levy’s misgivings?
If Conte determines the needs and Levy doesn’t bungle the payment then what exactly does Paratici do?
Pity, none of the players signed then specifically fit the roles identified. More a question of getting our backsides slapped by Barcelona and Liverpool and Levy breaking out in a muck’s sweat that he would face armageddon at the stadium if no signings arrived. My guess is Paratici decided to make a quick return to Juve, call in a few favours, and collect a couple of players to save face. Hardly strategic planning and acquisition?
The article was taken from the UK newspaper The Independent and is by Melissa Reddy and is well worth a look. Spurs around 2010 had a brilliant analytics team well ahead of the game. Comolli went to Liverpool and he took Spurs top talent spotters with him. The rest as they say is history. Liverpool’s network of scouts and contacts is top class. There was no chance of Diaz ever coming to Spurs.
It helps. Liverpool actually got their recruitment, analytics and transfer strategy with help from Tottenham in a round about away.
There is a very interesting article on Damien Comolli and Michael Edwards and Spurs and Liverpool’s transfer strategy in The Irish Independent. I’d post a link but there is a paywall and I don’t think it would work.
If I can find a work around a I’ll post it.
And by the way, we weren’t in a’ race’ with anyone serious with Romero. There was some interest but we didn’t mess about and went in and got him. Not much money sloshing about in Italian football at the moment which certainly took Juventus and Inter out of the equation.
We didn’t win any race for Romero, so stop bending the truth Fabio.
And a spend of £580 million
While people who know nothing about football have input into transfers the club will never have consistent success.
It takes humility to admit you know little about a subject and to appoint the best people available.
That’s what Liverpool have done. Almost thirty years without a Premier League title made them change. I hope Tottenham can learn from that.
At least it was explained well for once. Needs time, lets see who we can snare in the summer. He came across well in the Juve documentary on Amazon.
Ah, but no other big club were convinced enough to sign NDombele, because they did their due diligence and found a questionable mentality in the boy.
So pointless being ‘in the race’ if we can’t attract them isn’t it? I’m sorry but I don’t understand your logic whatsoever.
This concept of ‘a race’ is total garbage, you identify a player, you do the deal and you get them in. This isn’t the bloody Olympics! 😂
Worth a rewatch of the transfer window episode of the Amazon doc, (just look past the hate it comment). It pits a cash and prestige equation.
We could get some of the big names but if you’re not winning you may have to pay more in wages.
But that can back fire, just look at NDombele.
This is the point though isn’t it? The hand he’s been dealt, what is that exactly?
Whatever it is had better be vastly different from the last 23 years in order for him to eventually win any of these races that he wants to enter.
Until we win a race it’s nothing but hot air. He’s a good company man, tows the line, I’ll give him that…
Absolute cobblers. The only thing Paratici says that I don’t agree with is that we are in this top 10 big clubs in he world. We didn’t get Diaz because of that. We’re not in the CL, we don’t pay 200k+ a week on a regular basis and we dont win silverware.
That is why the top talent rarely comes to the club, but I agree with him in that he ought to be in the race – not trying for Diaz would have been worse than being gazumped by Liverpool.
Forget Levyland, you’re in FantasyLand if you think top top players are coming to this (or any) club unless we’re serious title challengers.You can blame Levy all you like for the 20 years of mismanagement that means we are not currently in that position, but Paratici to me seems like he’s just playing the hand he’s been dealt.
Saw that interview, he’s obviously referring to Diaz.
Well, “fighting with the big clubs for players” and and losing means absolutely naff all mate. Certainly makes it look like you’re ‘trying’ though, which is the most important PR component, to all this hot air.
When was the last time under Levy that we have ever gone toe to toe with another big club for a player? Well folks, it has NEVER happened, never once in 23 years.
Paratici is relatively new to all this and happy to go along with the PR spin and take home his wages. If he’d been around for the previous 22 years, he might actually think more carefully and even question the validity of his claim.
The Diaz money remains in the bank, so you’d better pull your finger out in the summer window and actually bring in a player or two that improve the team. Players who are actually coveted by our rivals (precisely because they’re good), and prove that you, and Levy are not still synonymous with failure and ‘trying’ by the time it shuts. Otherwise your mate Antonio might start fluttering his eyelids at the clubs you claim to be “fighting” with.
Stop talking about doing stuff and being ‘in the race’, it’s nonsense, pointless fanny and worse of all you are patronizing the fans.
More failures, more spin, more bullsh*t. It never stops, in Levyland…