Tottenham Hotspur may not have found a manager yet, but they did bring in a new director of football by snapping up Fabio Paratici.
Paratici spent more than 10 years at Tottenham, turning them into perennial title winners before leaving at the end of last season.
The Italian now needs to help Tottenham find a new manager, but there are some really worrying noises coming out surrounding Paratici and his vision.
What’s being said about Paratici?
BBC Sport claim that Paratici wants to build a defensive side at Tottenham, most likely influenced by his upbringing in Italian football.
Juventus were successful under Antonio Conte and Max Allegri during Paratici’s time there, and both boasted strong defensive records there.
Of course, they were aided by an outstanding defensive core of Gianluigi Buffon, Giorgio Chiellini, Andrea Barzagli and Leonardo Bonucci, but it’s no wonder Paratici wants something similar.
The report states that Paulo Fonseca wanted to play an attacking style at Tottenham, whereas Paratici wants a ‘defensive-minded team’.
With that in mind, Tottenham kiboshed their talks with Fonseca and will now look elsewhere for a new boss closer aligned to Paratici’s project.
Paratici’s vision completely different to Levy’s
This has to be pretty worrying for Tottenham fans.
In May, chairman Daniel Levy stated that he wanted to bring Tottenham’s DNA back with ‘free-flowing, attacking and entertaining’ football, which is what Mauricio Pochettino brought to the club so brilliantly.
Fonseca may not be a huge name, and he hasn’t had a ton of success outside of Ukraine, but he at least ticked those boxes with a progressive brand of football.
Just over a month since Levy made those comments, there are already noises that Paratici wants to go in a completely different direction.
The two ideas are diametrically opposed, and if the chairman and director of football aren’t on the same page, potential managers will surely notice that.
You can’t have the chairman publicly demanding attacking football, then have the director of football scrap potential candidates because they’re not defensive enough.
Paratici will be judged on his work in the transfer market, but if it’s true that he wants a manager completely opposite to what Levy publicly asked for, fans would be well within their rights to demand answers on just where the club is going and what their plan is moving forward.
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