It's not 'all made up claptrap'.
Paratici saw Gattuso as a better choice than Fonseca. As Gattuso became available, the Fonseca talks were ended.
But now the fan backlash has meant that Gattuso is off the table, so we're back to square 1.
Your conspiracy theory involving lots of journalists making up the same lie is incredibly unlikely.
The journalists are not making up the same lie, how many times does it need to be said, one journalist comes up with an exclusive and the rest simply follow and repeat the same story without properly checking their own sources. It happens all the time.
Paratici saw Gattuso as a better choice than Fonseca? Fonseca ain't great but everyone can see Gattuso is even worse and that's before we talk about his controversial views and violence against Joe Jordan
Lets say for one moment that Paratici rates him, don't you think he would have called Levy and said "Hey Daniel, I want to drop all negotiations with Fonseca and go for Gattuso instead" Surely at that moment Levy would have said "absolutely no way can I hire Gattuso for Spurs because he previously head butted a member of our coaching staff and his reputation is dirt with our fanbase "
The Gattuso links made no sense and was a media story that spun out of control without any solid facts.