Tottenham Hotspur’s January transfer window plans face the prospect of being blown up amid reports that sporting director Fabio Paratici could walk away from the club just months after securing a return to north London.
The Italian rejoined Spurs in mid-October following a two-year ban issued by Italian authorities relating to financial irregularities from his time at Juventus.
Paratici was tasked with working alongside fellow sporting director Johan Lange at Tottenham, with the former largely in charge of transfer business ahead of the January window.
At the time of his re-appointment, the 53-year-old said: “I’m delighted to be returning to a club that I love. I have been working with Johan, Vinai [Venkatesham] and Thomas [Frank] as a consultant for a number of months and I now look forward to returning to London and joining the team full time.
“I’m convinced that working in partnership with Johan we can build a special future for the club and our supporters.”
Those comments could be short-lived, however, with Tottenham’s faith in Paratici now looking unlikely be repaid by the Italian, as Fiorentina are pushing to recruit the Italian ahead of the second half of the season.
According to Firenze Viola via SportWitness, Paratici is getting ever-closer to making the move despite being present in London for Tottenham’s win over Crystal Palace on Sunday. It’s claimed he has been in Italy for talks and that he flew back for the Palace game.
A report from La Nazione goes on to claim Paratici will ultimately agree to terminate his current contract and that he wants his exit to be ‘soft, without rift or repercussions’.
The report speculates that further developments could arrive ahead of the coming weekend, or after, with details still needing to be ironed out.
In the meantime, Paratici is said to be continuing talks with Fiorentina over their January transfer strategy in preparation for the move.
Frank, meanwhile, was particularly coy when quizzed about Paratici’s future after the much-needed win over Palace at Selhurst Park.
The Dane said: “I didn’t know that Vinai and Fabio were here today, but I expected them to be.
“As I said the whole time, there’s a lot of rumours with a lot of things. Players, staff members, directors, whatever it is, I don’t comment on them.”
There’s no denying that losing Paratici this close to the winter window would be an utter disaster for Tottenham, especially given his strong Serie A connections, with Lange likely to be forced back into the recruitment side of the operation – if the reports are indeed accurate.
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