Ornstein: Paratici to leave Spurs for Fiorentina in February

I think most Tottenham Hotspur fans expected that current Co-Sporting Director Fabio Paratici was leaving the club imminently. The rumors have been flying for weeks now, with Paratici closely linked with a return to Italy to take the Director of Football position at Fiorentina. The only question was when, and now according to David Ornstein we have our answer — Paratici will leave Spurs for “personal reasons” after the close of the January transfer window.

So this month is the last hurrah for Don Fabio, who will return to Italy after one final scattergun transfer window in order to spend more time with his crimes. It makes a certain amount of sense — whatever Tottenham’s medium-to-long-term plans for the Sporting Director position (and that includes Johan Lange) it would be a little silly to let them both go now when the current window is so incredibly important. It makes you wonder how much his heart is actually in it, but I suppose the job is the job and he’ll do his job until it’s no longer his job.

Ornstein cites “personal reasons” as the reason for Paratici’s departure despite only getting the Co-Sporting Director position in October, and while I won’t dwell too much on what those reasons actually are, there were rumors in the Italian media that Paratici’s partner was homesick and wanted to return to Italy. On that level, I can’t exactly blame him — all things being equal I would also strongly consider leaving London for a life in Florence, though Paratici will have a heck of a job ahead of him turning around a Fiorentina side that looks destined for Serie B next season.

Anyway, at least we know the plan. Hopefully he and Lange can “Bentancur” up a couple more Kulusevskis before he rides off into Northern Italy next month.