Tottenham’s managing director of football, Fabio Paratici, has defended Spurs’ January transfer window and referenced their failed pursuit of Liverpool new boy Luis Diaz.
The north Londoners had a busy window, offloading a number of fringe players – either on loan or permanently – and bringing in two new faces in the shape of Juventus duo Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur.
However, the club missed out on Colombian winger Diaz despite agreeing a deal with both the player and Porto, with Liverpool swooping in at the eleventh hour to hijack the deal.
Spurs were believed to be furious with Liverpool for gazumping them, though a reflective Paratici says it is a positive thing for the club to be in the mix to sign players of Diaz’s calibre even if they missed out on this occasion.
‘It’s normal for us to be in the middle of these kind of rumours, and then it’s also normal when you start the race and fight to sign big players,’ the Italian told the club’s website.
‘We are a big club, there are 10 or 12 big clubs in the world, so it’s normal when you start to race or to fight to sign a big player.
‘Of course, you have somebody that [wants] to sign this player too. And sometimes you win, as happened with [Cristian] Romero in the summer, and sometimes you can lose the race.
‘I think the worse thing, and the frustrating thing, is not being in the race.
‘We are here to build something bigger and we know we need a bit of time, a bit of patience, to build something. We can’t build something in one month, six months, we need time.
‘But we have to be committed and, like I said before, we have to be in the race when there is somebody good enough for us.
‘We want to sign players that can improve our team. We don’t sign just to sign – it’s not useful for the club, it’s not useful for the coach, it’s not useful for everybody.
‘So there are some positions where we searched and we found solutions, and others where we didn’t have this kind of opportunity, so it’s okay. We go ahead, we move forward with our players, and we are happy about it.’
MORE : Jurgen Klopp hails ‘outstanding’ Luis Diaz as Liverpool confirm £37.5m transfer
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