‘It’s crazy’ – Ferdinand claims Spurs should have hired PL man over Fabio Paratici

Rio Ferdinand has claimed that Tottenham Hotspur should have appointed Brighton’s technical director Dan Ashworth this summer.

Tottenham instead looked abroad and appointed Fabio Paratici, the former Juventus mastermind, as their new managing director of football (BBC).  

Ferdinand has stated that Daniel Levy should have targeted Ashworth due to his impressive work at Brighton since joining in 2018.

Paratici has gained some praise from fans for his work at Spurs so far – specifically in the transfer market where has delved into the foreign market.

Bryan Gill, Pierluigi Gollini, and Christian Romero have all come in for only an accumulated up front fee of £22.50m. The two Atalanta stars were both signed on initial loans, which could free up money for further signings this summer.

Paratici has also recouped £26.28m from departures in Juan Foyth, Toby Alderweirld, and Joe Hart (Transfermarkt). 

Despite this, Ferdinand has stated that Levy should have looked elsewhere and he feels it is now ‘fashionable’ to appoint a foreign director over great British talent.

On his own Youtube channel, Ferdinand said: “If I was Spurs, I would have gone and got Dan Ashworth. Brighton fans will want to kill me.

“But that guy, meticulous, what he does with a shoe-string budget at Brighton, what he has done with England and all the young players coming through. Setting the blueprint there.

“Dan Ashworth, I would put him up there. It’s fashionable to go foreign now. To go and get foreign directors of football or technical directors when we have got a good few of them sitting here. It’s crazy.”

SpursWeb Opinion 

Ashworth has done a great job at Brighton and it would have been a strong appointment, he will no doubt be picked up by a ‘top six’ side soon.

But Paratici has done an impressive job so far and it makes the future fairly bright. It’s nice to see Spurs making some smart moves in the window.

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