Former Tottenham Hotspur director of football Fabio Paratici may have had some bizarre ideas on the way out, such as trying to work with Ivan Juric as the next Spurs manager, but he also nearly saved the club from the disastrous Thomas Frank hire.
Paratici was an asset to Tottenham, bringing in credible starters to a team that has been treading water these last few seasons. After just returning to the club in an official capacity this past summer transfer window, he just as soon left them in the dust this winter transfer window with a surprising move back to Italy to be Fiorentina's director of football.
Fiorentina are perhaps the only big club in European football who have been even more disappointing than Tottenham, because at the time Paratici announced his signing with the Viola, the Florence based side were dead last in Serie A despite being resurgent in the 2024/25 season.
Why did Fabio Paratici leave?
There have been a number of reasons speculated by Tottenham Hotspur fans as to why Fabio Paratici suddenly left the club, with most of them having to do with not wanting to work with an inept ownership, as well as two incompetent partners in sporting director Johan Lange and manager Thomas Frank.
Well, Paratici all but confirmed those rumors in his first public remarks since taking the Fiorentina job, taking a shot at the Tottenham ownership that fans will roundly appreciate.
Paratici said, via The Athletic's top Serie A reporter James Horncastle, "To do this job with a club like Fiorentina was a source of real motivation. To do it with these owners, who are very serious, and infrastructure that's super international, a brand known all over the world and people who share my ideas on the game was more than enough for me to come back and work here."
It is a biting shot at Tottenham, with the barb "very serious" both in praise of Fiorentina and a not so subtle jab at Spurs for not being serious. As much as Tottenham are a global brand and have a bigger footprint than the Viola since they are in London in the Premier League, they did not share Paratici's vision or ambition in the same way.
The fact that Paratici bolted in the winter for Fiorentina and thinks Fiorentina are more serious than a supposed Premier League Big Six club is a truly troubling statement of both intention from Paratici and of disgrace for what Spurs are slowly becoming.