Lille head coach Paulo Fonseca has revealed that everything was finalised for him to take over at Tottenham in the summer of 2021 but Fabio Paratici had other ideas in the end.
Fonseca, who parted ways with Roma after leading the club to a disappointing seventh-place finish in the Serie A in 2020-21, was one of the candidates the North London club spoke with before they appointed Nuno Espirito Santo (Evening Standard).
The Athletic reported at the time that Spurs had even struck an agreement with the Portuguese coach on a two-year contract with the option of a third.
The publication explained that the move eventually collapsed since Paratici had disagreements with Fonesca over transfer policies and found the Portuguese coach to have no clear plan regarding his backroom staff.
Fonseca eventually took over at Lille last summer and has done a decent job at Stade Pierre Mauroy, with the club currently sitting in fourth place in the Ligue 1 table.
When asked about the speculation linking him with the Tottenham job 18 months ago, the 49-year-old has now told RMC Sport: “After my departure from Roma, everything was closed, everything was almost finalized but there was the arrival of a new general manager who opted for another coach. It was done at the last moment but that’s football. It is a matter of choice.”
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If the Conte project does not work and comes to an end within the next few months (which looks likely at this point), that will not reflect well on Paratici’s judgement.
The Spurs managing director almost gave the job to the likes of Fonseca and Gattuso in 2021, and his eventual appointment of Nuno also turned out to be a disaster.