Fabio Paratici's looming transfer presence and why Ange Postecoglou screamed at his Tottenham subs
Fabio Paratici can still often be found at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as a guest in one of the boxes in the west stand's middle tier. Sat a couple of rows behind the press box, the Italian has never attempted to conceal his slightly awkward presence as a regular visitor to the club where he was once the managing director of football until that ban for his involvement in Juventus' problems.
Paratici has helped Spurs in a consultancy capacity since and some of the transfers of the Ange Postecoglou era bear his fingerprints, especially in the Australian's first summer with players like Guglielmo Vicario and James Maddison.
While Postecoglou had been keen on the signing of Brennan Johnson, it was Paratici who had scouted him heavily alongside Djed Spence and James Garner during Forest's promotion-winning season.
Although Paratici's involvements were limited mainly to that first summer, in January Spurs did sign Radu Dragusin, a player the Italian had first brought to Juventus, even if his successor Johan Lange pushed through the deal for the young Romanian with chairman Daniel Levy.
The timing of Paratici's presence at Sunday's Premier League draw with Wolves, just two days before the January transfer window opens and at a moment when Postecoglou's squad needs quick and major mid-season surgery - apologies for using a medical word at a time like this - seems more than just coincidence.
Postecoglou and Lange are trying to make things happen quickly this week to bolster the Australian's squad before Tottenham's season is brought to a premature close in the month ahead. Paratici's contacts within the game and relationships with various clubs could well be tapped into if required.
The quickest deals to be done are loan moves and while the cheapest form of transfer and not exactly eye-catching nor ambitious for the fans, they could work on a number of levels for Tottenham. Postecoglou's squad could be strengthened quickly while not blocking the long-term path of talents like Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall, Mikey Moore and the incoming Yang Min-hyeok and Luka Vuskovic.
There is also a more cynical view on loans in that if Postecoglou does not make it beyond the season-defining upcoming period with the two Carabao Cup semi-final legs against Liverpool and the final couple of Europa League games of this stage then loan players do not need to be kept on if there is a managerial change and they no longer fit.
There is understanding within the club of the tough situation Postecoglou is in and the impact on the tired players he is having to put out every three days and how it limits his high-octane football. He is also benefiting from the fact that the Spurs players are still playing for him when his more recent predecessors ultimately lost the support of sections of the dressing room.
However, this period ahead is a crucial one for the constantly fire-fighting Australian to show that Tottenham's season is ultimately better off with him at the helm than without. The results over 2024 as a whole have not been good enough, despite the fifth-place finish in the previous campaign amid the post-Harry Kane rebuild.
For Postecoglou's football to work, he needs more bodies to push into battle. football.london understands that Spurs are looking at potential recruits across a number of positions, including a new centre-back, left-back and a midfielder, while the Australian also previously told football.london that a new attacker could be in order if his internal options in the attacking third remain slim.
Tottenham are also considering the situation in goal. Fraser Forster has filled in for the injured Vicario with mixed results. The 36-year-old is unable to sweep up behind the high line as quickly as his Italian counterpart does, which immediately compromises Postecoglou's system. Forster's confidence with his passing has also been mixed against the opposition press.
Forster has conceded 25 goals in his 13 matches this season, admittedly behind a more makeshift central defence, while Vicario let in 10 goals fewer in 15 matches.
With the homegrown Brandon Austin seemingly not in the mix, Spurs have two external options they could take.
One would be to sign a short-term goalkeeper on loan to bridge the gap until Vicario's return from his fractured foot - he has now ditched the crutches and is able to walk with his protective boot unaided - and then cover him until the end of the season. The other would be to bring in a long-term competitor to challenge Vicario early from next month rather than in the summer when Forster's contract currently ends.
In all the positions, this January transfer window will provide an even trickier marketplace. There are no summer international tournaments to help convince targets that they need to play rather than sitting on a bench, while Postecoglou mentioned last week that the difference in the European competitions with more matches means less need for clubs to trim squads.
There is space in Spurs' Premier League squad for new faces but any new arrivals would either have to miss out on potential Europa League knockout matches or replace those already in that squad.
Either way, Tottenham and Postecoglou need fresh legs. You know the players are tired when even the ever-running Dejan Kulusevski was drained and falling over his own feet while trying to get up the pitch in the second half against Wolves.
Tottenham had wrestled control of the game back from the visitors following their early goal from the unmarked Hwang Hee-chan, a pinpoint effort after a short free-kick was played across the edge of the Tottenham box and nobody rushed out to block it.
First Rodrigo Bentancur powered home from Pedro Porro's corner, before Dragusin sent a header inches wide from the Spaniard's next flag kick.
Johnson and Kulusevski combined before the latter was brought down by Andre and despite Son Heung-min seeing his resulting penalty kick saved, Johnson and Kulusevski linked up again before the break and this time the Wales international slammed home his 11th goal of the season.
Spurs should have put the game to bed in the second half as Postecoglou rang the changes at the hour mark with three substitutions - the way he normally likes to manage games.
The Australian was furious at those three substitutes - Maddison, Timo Werner and Pape Matar Sarr - for not being ready to come on during the first break of play that presented itself after they were called back from their warm-up.
To be fair to the trio there was very little time in between them arriving back at the dugout and having to pull on their shirts before play stopped and they were on the end of the Postecoglou roar and accompanying arm waving.
The trio did make something of a difference, replacing Johnson, Yves Bissouma and the again ineffective Son, who continues to lack in confidence.
Maddison fired over the bar from one good move, Sarr got into some good positions and Werner sent a low cross inches away from the sliding boot of Dominic Solanke. A third Spurs goal should have come after Solanke and Kulusevski broke up the pitch, Jose Sa rushed out and was rounded by the Swede only for a Wolves defender to block his shot towards goal.
There were numerous occasions when Kulusevski and Solanke surged deep into the Wolves half but slowed and ran out of his legs when fresher versions of themselves would have burst into the area. Solanke had one such great opportunity when he lolloped into the box but was caught up by the covering defender.
The irony among the calls for more pragmatism is that this knackered version of Tottenham did sit back more and allow Wolves more of the ball, but it took one tired mistake to hand the visitors a share of the spoils.
Archie Gray, otherwise again impressing for an 18-year-old midfielder playing as a centre-back, missed Wolves sub Jorgen Strand Larsen running in behind him, playing him onside and the Norwegian squeezed a powerful shot between the flapping Forster and his near post and into the roof of the net.
It was a hammer blow to Spurs and Postecoglou.
"It's a disappointing outcome. Obviously we went a goal down but after that I felt we controlled the game," he told football.london. "It wasn't always easy to get openings but we did look pretty threatening every time we did get forward. We scored a couple of goals, we obviously missed the penalty and then in the second half, I just thought we had some really big moments to kill the game off.
"They weren't really creating much, I mean I think Fraser had one save to make with his feet, that was about it. You felt we kind of needed that third goal and obviously they scored at the end and you're kind of left with a disappointing outcome, but it's not through the want of trying.
"It's obvious, the lads are fairly fatigued, especially in that front third we're not as sharp as we can be, which is understandable because we're asking a lot of a sort of small core group of players and, as I said, it's not for the want of trying and they're trying to get the outcomes for us."
He added: "I can see how hard they're trying and if we were at our sharpest today we would have got that third goal and maybe a fourth.
"I mean we were inches away at times from getting the goal we needed and I think we're just lacking a little bit of that dynamic movement that we need because you look at those players, Dom and I don't know where Deki gets the energy from and even Brennan and even Sonny and a lot of these guys, they're finding some form of energy to still be out there trying, but we're certainly not as sharp as we can be."
The problems continue to pile upon Postecoglou and he lost two more players in this game to injury and suspension.
Destiny Udogie pulled up after making an unused overlapping run down the left just a few minutes into the second half. The difficulty the young Italian was then having in walking along the sideline and down the tunnel suggests it was potentially a serious problem.
"I think it was a hamstring," Postecoglou told football.london. "Again like I said, we've been relying on a core group of players because we just haven't had the ability to rotate so at some point it was going to catch up with us. Unfortunately it caught up with Destiny."
Another review into the medical problems at the club was sparked by the amount of re-injuries that are occurring with players coming back to supposedly full fitness only to soon depart again back to the physio room.
Micky van de Ven and Ben Davies both re-injured hamstrings almost immediately, the Dutchman in his first game back and the Welshman in his first training session back. Wilson Odobert was the worst of the bunch. The summer signing injured his hamstring in the Carabao Cup win at Coventry in September before suffering a major setback on his return to training, which required surgery in November.
Others like Cristian Romero, Richarlison and now Udogie have all quickly picked up different muscle injuries to the ones that had kept them out before. The return and loss of Romero and Van de Ven against Chelsea was simply embarrassing for all concerned.
"That's been our major problem this year - guys who are coming back from injury rather than us losing players as such," said Postecoglou on Friday. "Knock on wood but the core group of players who are training and playing games have no issues.
"So we're looking at those things and why they're happening. It's certainly happened too often this year where guys have come back and they're the ones who are missing. I think just about all of them, apart from Vic, are recurrences of an injury. Even with Romero, it was a different injury, but it's still a guy coming back, so it's something we're looking at."
There has been plenty of change within Spurs' medical department. Long time Head of Medicine and Sports Science Geoff Scott left the north London club at the end of last season after 20 years.
In the time since, Nick Davies, having worked for West Ham and Wales, joined in July as the new head of sports science, while Brighton's former head of medicine and performance Adam Brett joined in June as director of performance services.
Yet the problems are continuing for Postecoglou and the Australian, whose sides have a history of hamstring injuries, must also take some of the responsibility, especially when it comes to someone like Udogie.
The 22-year-old Italian has played the fourth most amount of minutes at Spurs with 1,816 to his name. His role is a different one to Pedro Porro's on the other side with the Spaniard using his ball-playing ability to hit early crosses in from deep, while Udogie's role is more of an overlapping one.
Postecoglou's full-backs work hard and cover a lot of ground, but so do most full-backs and wing-backs in modern systems. The key is rotation and Postecoglou's lack of trust in his other options - and the failure to offload Sergio Reguilon and sign another left-back has come back to haunt him.
It took an injury crisis for Djed Spence to get his chance and the 24-year-old has taken that belated opportunity to impress on both flanks, with Postecoglou admitting he has been excellent. It only increases the question marks over why he didn't get his chance sooner.
There has also been Reguilon, who was solid enough in his first prolonged exposure to a football match all season. The Spaniard does not particularly suit Postecoglou's style and shouldn't really be at the club any more but with the decision made to include him in the Premier League squad then he could have been an option in matches to rest Udogie, even if just for portions of games.
At centre-back, Radu Dragusin played again despite an ankle problem forcing him off at Forest in midweek.
"We had no choice, if Radu doesn't play, I don't know who plays," said Postecoglou. "He wasn't 100%, but he felt he could get through with his ankle and again, I think the players are all giving everything they can at the moment.
"It's just unfortunately we can't give them what they really need and that is some recovery and rest because we've got so many players out, but Radu wanted to play today and you know while he wasn't 100%, we had no choice to put him out there."
He added: "There's no choice, but it's not a risk. I mean it's a judgment call, you know. It's not like it's a muscle injury, it's a knock on his ankle, but yeah, we're making decisions. We've got no choice unless I throw another 18 or 17-year-old out there, well, that's the only fit players we have at the moment."
Technically the other option was 19-year-old Alfie Dorrington. The England U19 centre-back is highly thought of at Spurs but has had a fragmented season. He missed pre-season and the opening couple of months of the campaign after requiring hamstring surgery at the end of the previous season.
His game time has been sparse for the U21s, with just a handful of appearances before Postecoglou gave him his Premier League debut with 13 minutes or so left at the end of the win at Southampton.
It remains to be seen whether Dorrington is fit enough to start a Premier League game and it would also be a big risk to hand him his first start alongside an 18-year-old midfielder in the backline who is trying to learn the position in Gray.
On a selfish level for Postecoglou, sending Dorrington on loan in January and recalling the more experienced yet same aged Ashley Phillips, who is set for his third manager this season at Stoke, would help the head coach but do little for Phillips once the other centre-backs return to fitness. That Tottenham are looking for another centre-back suggests that's not Plan A.
Postecoglou claims he is always adapting and learning so the review of the medical side must also take into account where he can help the players.
The ferocity and pace of the Premier League and the sheer number of games are proving to be the biggest test for his system and his public statement that he was happy with his squad in September suggested he vastly underestimated the challenge ahead.
Postecoglou will be without Bentancur for Saturday's home game against Newcastle after the Uruguayan managed to do the one thing he knew he just couldn't - pick up a yellow card.
Had the 27-year-old managed to reach the final whistle without one, he would have hit the cut off point to wipe out his four yellow cards so far as Maddison and the absent Van de Ven did. Instead, in the 97th minute of the game, Bentancur flew into a wild challenge that brought his fifth booking of the season and a one-match ban to add to the seven he's already served recently.
Bentancur had played reasonably well otherwise, netting that early equaliser and setting Johnson away in the build-up to Spurs' second goal. He had come out before kick-off with one of his children as a mascot, Postecoglou high-fiving the little one as the midfielder brought them back off the pitch.
Of Bentancur's booking, Postecoglou said: "Again that comes down to the players being so desperate to turn things around. It was an unfortunate moment, didn't really need to happen and I'd much rather he didn't make that tackle and was available for the next game. The players are obviously hurting, they want to turn this around and it's not for the want of trying."
One of Postecoglou's biggest problems lies is that in the key number six role in his team he has two senior players who struggle with responsibility. Both Bentancur and Bissouma have racked up more suspensions than anyone else in his team and they both sometimes go wandering in key moments rather than leading the side.
Both players have contracts that end in 18 months' time. In terms of long-term successors, Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall are laying down their markers as future holders of the number six role but in the meantime, Postecoglou needs someone older that he can trust. Spurs have an option to sign Real Betis' Johnny Cardoso in the summer and all options will be considered.
In the meantime, Postecoglou has given his players two days off to get away from life at Spurs and recharge both mentally and physically before the report back to Hotspur Way on Wednesday to prepare for that game against Eddie Howe's men.
Some will take the chance for a quick getaway, although the time frame allows for little in the way of exotic locations. Maddison and Johnson preferred to start their unwinding just three-and-a-half miles down the road at the World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace.
In what is one of only two free midweeks for Tottenham in almost three months, Postecoglou needs his players to rest up and take their minds away from the grind for 48 hours or so.
What about Postecoglou himself during these couple of days off for the squad?
"I'll just keep going, mate. We've got work to do and try to get some help for these players and our role is to try and give them everything we can, the support we can to perform at their best," he said.
"It is what it is. It's fair to say we're dealing with a fair bit and it doesn't feel like we're getting a smooth run at anything in terms of getting players back and allowing us to freshen up the team.
"As soon as we get one back, we lose one. We've just got to get through it. There's still a hell of a lot for us to play for. With what's on the horizon we have to give the players all the support we can to perform at their best."
Postecoglou believes that a good season in the Premier League is still there for his 11th-placed side.
"I think so, because it's still fairly tight. I just feel that at some point we'll get a relatively healthy squad and when we do that we'll be able to perform at a high level consistently and we've already shown this year we can beat anyone," said the Spurs boss.
"There's a chance there you can go on a run, but at the moment that's secondary to the first bit, we have to try to get some support for the players - both mentally and physically and in terms of numbers to give them the opportunity to play at their best."
He added: "It hurts me because I'm responsible ultimately. I'm the person in charge. So of course it hurts. When I see how hard they are trying, it hurts even more because you want them to get a reward and I think today they deserved a reward for their efforts even though they were dipping into their reserves of energy, which I don't even know where they got from.
"I wanted them to get a reward for their efforts. So of course it hurts. It hurts immensely. At the same time it's my responsibility for where we're at right now and it's my responsibility to try to get us out of it.
Postecoglou, Lange and maybe even Paratici will be working away to bring in reinforcements to re-energise tired Tottenham. There's simply no time to waste.
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