100%. I think this was always Paratici’s primary role, not identifying and scouting individuals and compared to Levy, he did well at closing deals quickly
I suspect Paratici is involved all the way through to a signing.
He may not always be the first in his team to scout a particular player but I'm pretty sure he does spend a good deal of time watching players who he thinks might be a good fit for the team and that way knows the kind of value range he's prepared to pay and indeed how many of that type of player are available - sometimes his short list to fill a particular position might be quite short, sometimes there's a few players who might be decent buys.
Once he's identified his shortlist for a position, its then he decides his strategy to close the deal (based upon knowing most of the people at most if not all the clubs, and probably the players contract position) - and that as you say is where he's probably very good, but I suspect its because he's put in the work to really understand the real 'worth' of the player.
As an example, I understand Paratici had spent a couple of years tracking Vicario's progress, and probably judged this was the summer where he had the experience to make the jump to the PL, but he also had Raya on the shortlist, possibly because being HG (Spurs are still short of quality HG players) and PL experience he had to be in the list.
But with Brentford inflexible on price for Raya, he decided to close the deal to sign Vicario very quickly. A real masterclass on acquiring a top player in a 'must fill' position in a timely manner and at a very acceptable price.
