Fabio Paratici insists Tottenham's 'goal' is to keep Harry Kane
By Tom Gott
New Tottenham director Fabio Paratici has stressed his desire to see star striker Harry Kane remain at the club beyond this summer.
Kane asked to leave Spurs before Paratici joined the club and is believed to be adamant that the time is right for him to leave, although chairman Daniel Levy is determined to dig his heels in and reject all advances.
A £100m bid from Manchester City has already been knocked back, and Paratici suggested to Sky Sport Italia that Spurs will continue to reject bids as they have no interest in selling their talisman.
"Keeping him is not just my goal, it's our goal as a club," Paratici said. "I can't wait to watch him play live, I've been really lucky in the past years because I've watched a lot of top players and strikers, like Cristiano Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez, Alvaro Morata, Gonzalo Higuain, and many more which now I forgot about.
"Right now, he's one of the best strikers in the world. He's a complete player, really special. His physique is that of a real number nine, a true poacher, but he also has an incredibly refined technique.
"He is able to shoot with both feet and also provides many assists - very few people notice this, because he scores so many goals. He's a team player, but he's a finisher at the same time, so really I believe he is among the top three in the world.
"I haven't heard from him yet because I don't want to bother the players who are busy at the Euros, it doesn't seem fair to me. They're focused on their own goals with their national teams."
Paratici also opened up on Spurs' pursuit of a new manager, which was almost comical at times as talks with Antonio Conte, Paulo Fonseca and Gennaro Gattuso all collapsed before Nuno Espirito Santo was finally given the job.
"We talked to some coaches and then, having had talks with them, we chose to go with Nuno," he continued. "He has great experience in the Premier League after working in England for four years. He increased the value of a lot of players and had already done well at Valencia.
"As for the relationships we had, it is true that Conte was close to Tottenham. He too had experience in England. But you don't just talk to one coach, you listen to a lot of them and then choices are made based on their motivations.
"We also talked to Gattuso, but despite what came out in England, we simply had interviews. In Italy, things can get out of hand and contact is often considered a closure. Here, however, everything is done with much more tranquillity."