Tottenham thrown into turmoil by director of football blunder overseen by Fabio Paratici

On Tuesday, Fabio Paratici warned Tottenham’s players not to let speculation about Antonio Conte’s successor distract them. However, on Wednesday, their task is to not be distracted about the speculation about Paratici’s own successor, as the managing director of football’s 30-month ban from Italian football was extended by Fifa, rendering his position untenable. Whether he leaves temporarily or permanently, Tottenham are now a club in chaos, with no one supervising the search for a new manager.

Paratici’s job was more strategic, but Tottenham have a mish-mash of players, a squad constructed by confused thinking. His handful of successes include Rodrigo Bentancur, Dejan Kulusevski, and Cristian Romero, but are balanced out by mentions of the failures, such as Richarlison, Yves Bissouma, and Djed Spence. Spurs are in need of a summer where they lose players, bring in new talent, and add creativity in midfield, goalscorers not named Kane and Son, another top-class centre-back and someone who can take over from Hugo Lloris, whoever is in charge next.

Given how badly Spurs’ previous searches for a manager went, Paratici may be no great loss. It depends on how much culpability he has for the misguided move for Gennaro Gattuso and the disastrous appointment of Nuno Espirito Santo. But if the sense is that bad decisions have outnumbered the good at Tottenham over the last few years, sticking with Paratici until he was given a two-and-a-half year ban from world football could rank as another.