Tottenham CEO Vinai Venkatesham has shed light on how the news of the club appointing two sporting directors has gone down with head coach Thomas Frank.
Spurs, who are in the process of changing their leadership structure since Daniel Levy’s exit, arguably took their biggest decision yet this morning.
Tottenham confirmed that Fabio Paratici and Johan Lange will be working together as sporting directors, with the announcement catching many people off guard.
It is certainly a very unusual structure, and the man who might be impacted most is the head coach. We have now heard what Frank thinks of the appointments.
Thomas Frank is a fan of having two sporting directors at Tottenham
The Danish coach is no stranger to working with Lange and Paratici, having done so since arriving at the club in the summer.
Interestingly, Tottenham CEO Vinai Venkatesham has now revealed that Frank has worked in a similar structure at Brentford before and is fully in support of splitting the responsibilities of sporting director between two people.
When asked what the Tottenham boss thinks about the appointments, Venkatesham told the club’s official channel: “I have talked about this with Thomas a lot and he is completely relaxed about it and very happy with where we are going.
“He has actually explained to me that this structure of working with two people is something that he is actually very familiar with. He tells me he had a very similar structure at Brentford.
“He has a very good relationship with both Johan and Fabio. I just had breakfast with him just now, and he is really looking forward to getting going. He has his press conference on Friday, so you will hear from him about it directly then.”
Venkatesham expects Fabio Paratici and Johan Lange to complement each other
The Tottenham CEO also explained that Paratici and Lange have divergent skill sets, and he expects the pair to complement each other very well.
Venkatesham revealed that he got to know Paratici over the last few months and referenced the Italian’s network as something that will benefit Tottenham hugely.
The Spurs chief said about the two new sporting directors: “I have got very good relationships with them. I knew Johan a little bit before I joined from his time at Aston Villa. Not well, but I did know him a little bit, and obviously, we have worked really closely together for the last four months.
“Very smart guy, very forward thinking, very analytical, and has made real significant progress across a number of different departments at the club since he joined us a couple of years ago.
“Fabio, I didn’t know before I joined, but he has been a consultant to the club, and I have also got to know him very well over the last four months. He is hugely experienced and has a fantastic network.
“With Johan and Fabio, we are bringing together two individuals who are very talented but also, to some extent, have slightly different experiences and expertise. I think they will form a very good team.”
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