Fabio Paratici working with Spurs to try and complete midfield signing
By Tom Vinall
Last year, former director of football, Fabio Paratici, officially left the club, but there has always been talk that he is still consulted when it comes to recruitment.
During the summer, there were several rumours that Spurs were interested in a defensive midfielder, though they did go quiet towards the end of the transfer window. Whilst Archie Gray is not an out and out defensive midfielder, his addition to add to Spurs' options in midfield seemed like it had negated the necessity of a defensive midfielder.
However, last month it was reported by HITC that Spurs were scouting Samuele Ricci when Italy played Israel in the UEFA nations league.
Former Spurs goalkeeper Paul Robinson has provided the latest on the matter, when speaking to Football Insider. The 44 year old said: "If you look at the way the team’s played in recent weeks in more of a 4-3-3 formation, I’m not sure whether the midfield will be a [priority] position.
But he’s a young player, he’s only 23 years old and he’s already got four caps for Italy. Tottenham are certainly interested in signing him. I think it’ll be tough to do in the winter but that is potentially one they’ll explore in the summer.
We know that Spurs like to do their business in Italy. They’ve had a lot of success from players who have come to the club from the Serie A, and maybe that’s why Ricci is the latest name to be mentioned. It’s still got the fingerprints of Fabio Paratici working with Tottenham’s recruitment team.”
Robinson makes the point about Spurs now playing a 433 formation, and not needing a midfielder as much anymore. It could actually be the opposite. With Spurs playing with two number eights, who are both very attack minded in James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski, the pivot position becomes very important.
When you play a 4231 set up, you can get away with two "sort of" defensive midfielders if you like. Two of Rodrigo Bentancur, Yves Bissouma, Pape Sarr, and Archie Gray.
Bentancur has generally played fairly well holding down the pivot position so far, but is not a true defensive midfielder and had a really poor second half on Sunday. An actual defensive midfielder becomes a big need in this set up, so the interest in Ricci checks out from that point of view.
The Torino midfielder has been called up to latest Italy squad, along with Spurs pair Guglielmo Vicario and Destiny Udogie for their upcoming nations league games.