Fabio Paratici

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Normally the agreed deals are signed off by an FD, like any business, I guess that will still be Levy.

I actually think Paratici is going to be of more value in selling players / telling Levy that Sissoko has no transfer value, etc
Yes. But......

I doubt Levy is going to give Paratici a transfer budget and say "spend that however you like, my old mucker".

If we think back to the sale of Bale, I'm pretty sure Baldini was under instructions to sign players young enough to have a resale value. If my recollection is correct, ALL the "Magnificent Seven" were early to mid-20s with the exception of Soldado, who'd just scored 20-odd goals for Valencia.

I can definitely imagine Levy laying down strict conditions over the type of signings Paratici is permitted to make with the transfer budget.

Plus woolwich recently fired pretty much their entire scouting department to concentrate on the Moneyball God of Analytics and an operating model where agents approached them with players.

I suspect scouting is a very different game from when Frankie Arnesen rocked up at WHL with his "little black book" & persuaded Levy to sign a fantastically promising young Brazilian CB named Rodrigo Defendi....
 
I suspect scouting is a very different game from when Frankie Arnesen rocked up at WHL with his "little black book" & persuaded Levy to sign a fantastically promising young Brazilian CB named Rodrigo Defendi....

I'd defend Arnesen on that one.

His name was Rodrigo Defendi. Defendi. DEFENDI !!!

How could that possibly go wrong?
 
I'd defend Arnesen on that one.

His name was Rodrigo Defendi. Defendi. DEFENDI !!!

How could that possibly go wrong?
Oh I wasn't criticizing Arnesen or his "little black book".

I wanted Rodrigo Defendi to become the world's best CB, rather than succumbing to a dodgy passport.

But I don't imagine Paratici standing on some wet, muddy, touchline to identify the next George Best.

At Juve, agents would have been approaching him all the time with their players, and the analytics guys would have been pumping their computers full of data to identify whatever mumbo jumbo their algorithms favour this week.

Fundamentally, the only thing that matters is: how good a judge of a player is the person making the key decision to sign him?

And with Paratici, the jury is very much out.
 
I'm fine with Ally Gold. He's a perfectly competent journalist, doing a good job by and large.

In American parlance, he'd be called a "beat reporter", and everyone would understand that he gets info from the club, tries to tell it straight, and will occasionally get played by senior figures at Spurs. He also has to try to maintain good relations with the club.

But I'd love to know his evidence for this assertion about Paratici:

The Italian is known for being a supreme talent spotter and an expert in getting difficult deals done, whether they be for huge fees or free transfers.

Strange tale of Spurs' manager hunt with Conte, Paratici, Pochettino and Hitchen
 
I'm fine with Ally Gold. He's a perfectly competent journalist, doing a good job by and large.

In American parlance, he'd be called a "beat reporter", and everyone would understand that he gets info from the club, tries to tell it straight, and will occasionally get played by senior figures at Spurs. He also has to try to maintain good relations with the club.

But I'd love to know his evidence for this assertion about Paratici:

The Italian is known for being a supreme talent spotter and an expert in getting difficult deals done, whether they be for huge fees or free transfers.

Strange tale of Spurs' manager hunt with Conte, Paratici, Pochettino and Hitchen
Probably looked at his resume. Paratici was quite good at spotting talents both at Sampdoria and at Juventus.

Football Italia also put together a good write up on Paratici.

 
Probably looked at his resume. Paratici was quite good at spotting talents both at Sampdoria and at Juventus.

Football Italia also put together a good write up on Paratici.

There's not a single transfer there that impresses me as something we would be looking to do.

Both Pogba & de Ligt are Raiola clients. No scouting or player assessment was involved. The only question was: are you prepared to pay whatever filthy lucre Raiola is demanding?

As Alex Ferguson said:

Speaking about the situation, he said: "Paul Pogba? He just had a bad agent, a s*** bag."
Ferguson then doubled-down with his criticism on Raiola in his autobiography, published in 2015, where he wrote: "There are one or two football agents I simply do not like, and Mino Raiola is one of them."


Sir Alex Ferguson's brutally honest opinion of Paul Pogba's agent Mino Raiola
 
Probably looked at his resume. Paratici was quite good at spotting talents both at Sampdoria and at Juventus.

Football Italia also put together a good write up on Paratici.


Reading that article it sounds like we got the perfect guy, but then when you look deeper I am not sure everything they say in it has a ton of truth or evidence to back up the claims,

For example, it says he focuses on the academy and focuses on the future of the club, which is awesome because we desperately need that. But then I look at Juve's academy and I don't see many graduates that have done much. Maybe I am missing them, which is entirely possible, but it doesn't seem to be a strength at all. Then you look at the squad and it wasn't really built around youth at all. They seemed to rely on older guys and bringing them in on free transfers.

Again I might be missing something but it seems like the base of their successful teams were based around older guys like Buffon, Chellini, Barzgali, Bonucci, Marchesio, Pirlo and then bringing in guys like Pogba, Vidal, Morata from outside.

I don't get where the youth and academy aspect comes from.
 
There's not a single transfer there that impresses me as something we would be looking to do.

Both Pogba & de Ligt are Raiola clients. No scouting or player assessment was involved. The only question was: are you prepared to pay whatever filthy lucre Raiola is demanding?

As Alex Ferguson said:

Speaking about the situation, he said: "Paul Pogba? He just had a bad agent, a s*** bag."
Ferguson then doubled-down with his criticism on Raiola in his autobiography, published in 2015, where he wrote: "There are one or two football agents I simply do not like, and Mino Raiola is one of them."


Sir Alex Ferguson's brutally honest opinion of Paul Pogba's agent Mino Raiola

What he seems to be best at so far is identifying older talent that still can play and getting guys in on free transfers (although not all have worked but that is the case for anyone).

I struggle to see what he is bringing to Spurs and my concern is that Levy sees his experience in the free transfers as a way to cheap his way to a 4th place team. Although it goes against his sell on mandate that he seemed to have in the past.

I still find it to be a very odd fit for us.
 
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Is that Jack Wheelchair in the background?
:gallashmm:
 
This is a big part of the appeal, this is an elite rolodex if nothing else.
We're not going to start shopping at Chez Raiola for the likes of Haaland, de Ligt & Pogba.

The nearest Levy gets to "Super Agents" is the likes of Barnett & Mourinho's mate Mendes pushing Doherty & Gedson our way.

Hiring Paratici just means a bigger expenses bill for posh restaurants.

It doesn't mean we'll start signing elite players on huge salaries with massive "special" fees for their agents.
 
I’m not against hiring this guy. Can’t be worse than levy and Hitchen duo. And paratici must have loads of contacts with top clubs and top agents.
Why would we need someone with contacts at top clubs and agents

So we can offer 50p and a sandwich for their clients services?
 
Paratici appointment is a risky one. Going down the route of sign free transfers will bloat our wages. If no quick results we will end up with pricey deadwoods. And very likely will be the case

That is without the miserly Levy factor, when he will mandate, both last 12months-free AND low wages and premium age profile. Lets see how in unfolds, as it's the anti-thesis of his former preferred model in varying forms.

Gasperini sounds like quite the long shot. I don't think he has ever talked about wanting to manage outside of Italy at all.

And he has a tremendous amount of power at Atalanta. He forced the club to sell their star player in January because they didn't get along. Not many other clubs playing in the CL would give their manager that amount of power.

I like the sound of him.
 
People writing this guy off before he even is official is the kind of defeatist attitude that is synonymous with Spurs.

Give him a shot at least.
 
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