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.”