Journalist Alasdair Gold has claimed that the rumoured next Tottenham Hotspur sporting director Tiago Pinto is similar to Fabio Paratici.
Will Tottenham appoint Tiago Pinto as their next sporting director?
While the North London club are currently on the hunt to bring in a new manager, they are also looking to make another key appointment behind the scenes.
Indeed, Paratici left Spurs in April having had to resign after failing to overturn a 30-month ban from football following his role in alleged false accounting at his previous club Juventus.
A number of names have been tossed around as his replacement but it seems as though Roma sporting director Pinto is a leading candidate.
Indeed, over the past few weeks, it has been reported that Tottenham have "held talks" with the 38-year-old and remains in the frame to potentially land the job.
While talking about it all on his YouTube channel, Gold claimed that after speaking to his sources, he discovered that Pinto has a similar personality to Paratici.
The journalist explained (16:42): "From those I've spoken to – those who know these kinds of operators in the game – people would say Pinto was the one who would be most like Paratici.
"As in like a big operator, someone that, you know, is very much front of house, you see their face everywhere. They're a known entity, they speak to the media."
What's been said about Fabio Paratici?
Tottenham obviously won't want to repeat the trick of hiring someone who will eventually be banned from football – as Paratici has been.
But Pinto could be seen as a good option for the Premier League club if he shares other and different similarities with the Italian.
Indeed, the former Spurs man certainly had good PR before his career took a turn for the worse, with The Guardian writing a glowing profile shortly after he arrived as managing director.
In the article, he was dubbed a "workaholic" and Fabrizio Romano claimed: "The only sacred rule of the 'Paratici code' is that there are no holidays or breaks. His phone is never off; at most he is unavailable because he is with agents, players or presidents."
Clearly, the Italian didn't mind being the centre of attention and this can be handy in taking some of the focus and pressure off the manager, the players and even the chairman.
If Pinto does have a similar personality in that sense, then perhaps Daniel Levy will look to hire the Benfica man. His name is certainly one to keep an eye out for over the coming weeks and months.
