Ornstein: Fabio Paratici unlikely to leave Tottenham anytime soon

Late last week there were reports out of France that suggested PSG had dumped their technical director Leonardo in the days following their humiliating Champions League exit and were eyeing Tottenham Hotspur Managing Director of Football Fabio Paratici to take over.

Turns out both of those reports were somewhat wide of the mark. David Ornstein, quoting further sources in France and writing in The Athletic ($), says that PSG has NOT yet pulled the trigger on sacking Leonardo (though that does seem pretty likely) and while there has definitely been contact made between the French giants and Paratici, that contact was a while ago and Paratici is unlikely to leave Spurs in the medium term.

Ornstein says that Paratici’s contract was initially 18 months after which he will be evaluated with an eye towards lengthening his stay. Paratici is said to be “fully committed” to the project at Spurs, and is enjoying working with both Daniel Levy and Antonio Conte.

The reality of having a successful Director of Football at a club like Spurs is that if they’re TOO successful they do end up targets of other, bigger, richer clubs. That seems to be the case here with Fabio. He’s certainly had an impact on the club in recent transfer windows, especially this past January when he brought in Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur from his old club Juventus. There are still open questions about Paratici — Can he pull in top talent that ISN’T from Serie A? Can he successfully recast Tottenham without the resources of an oligarch-backed club? — but the early indications are good.

And at any rate it appears that we don’t have to worry about him bolting for greener pastures anytime soon, and that’s a nice feeling. Now if only we could say the same with 100% certainty about our head coach.