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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Giuseppe Muro

Tottenham chief Fabio Paratici reveals Antonio Conte transfer talks as Spurs construct summer plans

Tottenham sporting director Fabio Paratici has revealed he is holding regular talks with Antonio Conte about their transfer plans for the summer.

Conte has sparked fears he could be ready to quit Spurs over the past few months but the Italian has suggested he would be open to extending his contract if the club can show “good vision” and make “big improvements”.

Spurs made steps in the right direction in the January transfer window when they signed the Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski.

But Conte wants to build on it with further additions in the summer.

Spurs are constructing their summer transfer plans and Paratici has discussed transfers and Conte in his latest interview with the club.

“The most important thing is to be focused on the rest of this season,” said Paratici.

“We have nine games, we work hard to be here and to enjoy these nine games. To enjoy means we have to live these nine games as finals, every game as a final.

“Every game together, we need fans, we need people all around us, we need an optimistic environment, positive energy and I think all together we have to do the best that we can do and enjoy every game that we play. This is the first thing that we have to be focused on.

“And the second is my job, but it is not just my job but the job of my structure, so the scouting department and speaking with the staff and with Antonio every day about what we can do to improve this team. It is not just about players but also staff maybe, the best pitches maybe, the best infrastructure.

“So it is normal that when we speak about the summer we speak about recruitment, but we work every day and we speak all the time about what we can do to be better, so we follow like this. We continue to work in this way, in this direction.”

Asked about Bentancur and Kulusevski, who have made an instant impact since joining from Juventus in January, Paratici said: Me and Antonio know these players very well because me I was at Juve before and Antonio because he was in Italy, so he knows very well the players.

“We know that the character and mentality and the style of these kind of players would be right for us.

“So their adaptation was really quick. This was really the news, because normally some players need time to adapt, to adapt to the Premier League, to England, whatever, so for Rodrigo and Deki it was really, really quick.”

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