Paratici in full effect as Tottenham pursue a centre-half or two
By Aaron Coe
Tottenham Hotspur fans are witnessing Fabio Paratici in full swing with the pursuit of a new centre-half as Spurs have been linked with more than a dozen players.
When he first came to Tottenham Hotspur to take over as Directo of Football, Paratici had a reputation as a guy who liked keeping a lot of irons in the fire. The rumour was that the Italian would be working on multiple deals for each position at once, as he sought the best player available for his then club, Juventus. Now that Paratici is plying his trade in north London, we are starting to see the fruits of his tireless labour with any number of quality centre-backs for Tottenham to consider.
Left-back is the Tottenham priority, but depth is depth
The emphasis from day one this summer was and continues to be Alessandro Bastoni from Inter Milan. The young defender previously linked up with Antonio Conte in Milan and checks all the boxes for the type of defender Conte is looking for and prefers.
Although that left-sided centre-half is the priority, Spurs had little cover for Eric Dier last season and suffered greatly in January when Dier missed a few matches. If the left-back situation cannot be addressed in a way that suits Conte, he can always get by with more cover for the middle of the defence and address the left side in January or next summer.
The point is that while the left side is the preferred place to upgrade, Conte and Paratici are not going to settle on the person but may settle on the position of need that gets met. At this point, quality depth is depth.
That said, Tottenham has been primarily linked with left-sided defenders and many of them, so who exactly have Spurs been connected to?
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