TOTTENHAM SEARCH FOR FABIO PARATICI REPLACEMENT AND WHY THEY ARE STICKING WITH CO-SPORTING DIRECTORS
Tottenham Hotspur are planning to replace Fabio Paratici and stick to the two-man sporting director model, rather than handing full control of recruitment to Johan Lange.
With Paratici now gone, Lange was left to defend Tottenham’s approach to the winter transfer window – and respond to the criticism of captain Cristian Romero – on his own.
Telegraph Sport understands that Spurs have already started the process of trying to find a successor to Paratici, who has officially left his role at the club, and team up Lange with a new man.
Paratici remained in position for the winter transfer window in which Tottenham signed two players for Thomas Frank’s senior squad – midfielder Conor Gallagher and teenage left-back João Souza.
Tottenham’s perceived lack of business has prompted criticism over the roles played by Paratici and remaining sporting director Lange in the winter window.
Romero appeared to criticise the number of available first-team players at the club in a message that was posted on social media less than an hour after the winter window closed.
But, in an interview with Tottenham’s in-house media, Lange said: “Of course, when we go into January, we didn’t anticipate that we’ll have seven injuries during January. So that changes things during the course of the window.
“It’s very important, even though that is highly frustrating, to remain disciplined because (A) the players are coming back and (B) if you go and make a stress purchase of any football player, then yes, the immediate feeling [it] gives you is nice, but there’s no point signing players that have not helped us in the short, medium or long-term.
“The majority of the [injured] players will return this season, hopefully a few very soon. It is important as a club to remain disciplined and make sure to do our best and only sign players that can help the team now or in the future.”
Lange also claimed there “were simply not many available players across the whole marketplace during January”. He said: “I saw this as one of the quieter January windows across not only the Premier League, but across football in general.
“There were, including free transfers, 33 transfers across the Premier League. That is a result of the new format in Europe. Now we have clubs competing in either Champions League or Europa League during December and during the last part of January as well – 48 teams progressing further in European competitions after the window.
“We saw that a bit last year and we saw even more this year that have changed the dynamic a bit of the January window, with less business being done. Of course, a knock-on effect of the increased fixture schedule is that not only us but a number of clubs would say they have too many injuries. That meant there were simply not many available players across the whole marketplace during January.”
What next?
Tottenham announced what they described as their “new men’s football leadership structure” last October with Paratici and Lange in control of recruitment, scouting, player pathways and performance development as co-sporting directors.
The club are confident they can operate effectively while a successor to Paratici is identified, with Lange working closely with head coach Frank and chief executive Vinai Venkatesham. Carlos Raphael Moersen has been appointed as director of football operations.
Lange confirmed he and Spurs are already planning for the summer while the club search for a successor to Paratici by saying: “The summer market is where eight or nine out of 10 players, they move clubs, so we will go into the summer window with big ambitions of strengthening the team.
“We know there’ll be more movements, we know there’ll be more opportunities, so the plans are already drawn up. We have a clear picture of which position and also which profiles. Could we have brought one or two more in this January window? We would have been delighted to do so. But that was not a possibility.
“So we are looking forward to the summer and now we focus on the rest of the season and that is very important as well because we have big objectives. We’re still in the Champions League. We want to be higher in the Premier League and then myself and others will have our eyes directed towards the summer transfer window.”
Moersen has been serving gardening leave from the City Football Group and will start work at Spurs ahead of the summer transfer window.
But he is not a replacement for Paratici and Tottenham want to appoint a successor to the Italian and return to the two-man model Venkatesham had put in place.
Why have two sporting directors?
The decision to try to replace Paratici is not a reflection on the work of Lange or his ability to do the job, but a reinforcement of the belief in the structure Tottenham announced last October.
Tottenham believe they will benefit from having two sporting directors with complementary experience, who can combine different skills.
As well as working on deals for senior players such as Gallagher, Lange has proved himself to be a skilled recruiter of emerging talent, having been instrumental in the signings of Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall, Luka Vuskovic, who is on loan at Hamburg, and most recently James Wilson, who has joined the under-21 squad on loan from Hearts.
Paratici’s biggest successes across his two full-time spells at Tottenham were the signing of Romero, which he drove, in 2021 and the January 2022 transfer window in which he helped to clinch deadline deals for Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur.
Venkatesham, who is responsible for the appointment of Paratici’s successor, described the remit of a sporting director as being “vast” when Tottenham moved to a two-man model and added: “This structure reflects our ambition and determination to compete at the very highest level to deliver for our supporters.”
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