Fabio Paratici is making Johan Lange and Tottenham look even more incompetent
Tottenham Hotspur had only just hired Fabio Paratici again in a formal executive role to start the 2025/26 Premier League season, but mere months later around the winter transfer window, the Italian sporting director made the decision to leave the club in the middle of the season and take charge for a club that was, at the time, in even more dire straits in Fiorentina.
Paratici abandoned the Tottenham sporting project after seeing the writing on the wall under the incompetent leadership of Johan Lange and Vinai Venkatesham. He could see how bad things would get for Spurs, and with Tottenham not yet in the Premier League relegation fight, he took on the tall task of rescuing the historic Viola from Serie A relegation at a time when they were among those places.
Well, fast forward to late April, and Fiorentina are 15th in Serie A while Tottenham are 18th in the Premier League and right on the verge of going down. Whereas Tottenham Hotspur kept holding onto Thomas Frank for months after Fabio Paratici, who never wanted the Danish manager in the first place, told Lange and Vinai to get rid of him and signed no established players other than major flop Conor Gallagher in the winter transfer window, Paratici's signings have directly helped Fiorentina climb out of the relegation hole.
Fabio Paratici is embarrassing Spurs
One of those signings actually included taking Manor Solomon, on the books at Tottenham, on loan from La Liga Champions League contenders Villarreal. He also bagged another former Premier League attacker in Jack Harrison, along with his former Juventus center back Daniele Rugani, among others. While there is nothing impressive about the players Paratici brought to Firenze, the fact of the matter is that he made the moves he needed to in order to help Fiorentina get out of the relegation hole.
Meanwhile, Lange and Vinai sat pat with a lot more resources and only went after Souza and Conor Gallagher while screwing around with the idea of bringing in a finished Andrew Robertson, who could still make his way to the N17 this summer 2026 transfer window from Liverpool as a free agent.
Paratici is closer to average than great among sporting director in world football, but the fact that he is already doing so much better for Fiorentina than what Johan Lange and Co. are doing at Tottenham seals home just how terrible of a job the current group of execs at Spurs are doing.