Fabio Paratici: "When we speak about this Club, we must speak about it like a family"

In the second of a series of interviews, we sat down with Fabio Paratici to discuss our start to the season and our ambitions for the future.

N17 Live presenter and Spurs fan Ben Haines asked the questions - here's what Fabio, our Managing Director, Football, had to say...

Ben: "Fabio thank you so much for sitting down with us again, we really appreciate it. Tell me about this last month. Since we last spoke, we had an incredible first month to the season and then we came into this one which has been slightly more mixed this time around. Tell me how you saw it from your point of view?"

Fabio: “In every season we have huge up and downs, and, in this league, it’s very difficult because the competition is so high, you can lose against everybody. Sometimes if you have matches on a roll, like, every three days, sometimes it can happen that you lose two, three matches in a row. You have to be, balanced, focussed on our target, not in the small picture, but in the big picture which is what the Club aims for - the future, the project.”

Ben: "Where do you see the Club going over the course of the next few months?"

Fabio: “The work of these months is to be more balanced. We started with three very good results, then this month we were so-so, but I think we are still one step up, because the difficulties are important and can mean something. Our project is a long-term project. We know what we have to do.”

Ben: "I get the idea that the journey is just as important as the result. Getting it right along the way is a really important thing. Tell us a little bit about what this journey looks like for you?"

Fabio: “We are just at the beginning of our project. When we spoke a month ago, we spoke about a rebuild, not a build, but a rebuild of the team, and we started in the last transfer window. We are happy with Romero, happy with Emerson, Bryan Gil, now in the national team with Spain, Gollini, too, was good. We are renewing the team, but we need time. We are very happy about Tanganga, Skippy, also Dane - they love the Club, you feel that they have something special about the Club. They are well educated, that is a word I like a lot, educated about the culture of work and not just about football. This is the most important thing, because if you have this kind of skill, we can really achieve our targets.

“We have now a small picture, but it’s important this small picture because it’s this season. This season’s not two or three months, but seven to eight months, and we have to achieve results, to do the best we can do, to work hard to win every game that we can win.

“The big picture that is most important, is that this Club has to be like a family. When we speak about this Club, we must speak about it like a family. If you are a family, you need the support of everybody. If you want to achieve some results, you need players, coach, Club, fans to be positive. Even in the moments that are more difficult, like when you lose one game, two games, but you have to believe and to be positive. This feeling is transmitted to everybody, first of all, the players. The players will have to think that the players feel what we feel. So, if the fans are a bit negative, or I’m a little worried, the players feel this, and that’s not right. The players have to believe, we have to be positive, we have to think we can achieve, and we have to be focussed and we can achieve our targets.”

Ben: "I just want to ask you a bit about your time with Juventus. You were incredibly successful there in terms of what was built on the pitch. Tell me a bit about that time and what you’re hoping to bring to Spurs from your experience there."

Fabio: “When we started 11 years ago, they weren’t like the last years in Juventus. We started at another point but, like we have in mind this kind of target, we don’t lose our targets for one match lost or one month that’s not so good. We were focused in this way and were strong to follow our way. Nobody could disturb us in what we wanted to achieve. This is our direction. A lot of time, the way is not so straight. You have to go up and down, but resist and don’t change your mentality, don’t change your focus, stay there. This is what we have to do. A lot of people think and know what they want to achieve but not too many people know what you have to do to achieve the results.

“I’m somebody who would never just stay for six months, one year, two years in a club. My last experiences were 11 and six years. I want to think about long-term, to build something, that’s our target. I repeat, when I spoke about the big picture, it’s this - we have the best infrastructure in the world, amazing fans, we’re in a big city, the best city in Europe, I think, so we have everything to build something big. We need the support of everyone, because if we are positive and together, the way is easier.”

Ben: "What do you use as your target, as your driving force? When you think about the long term, what is it that you want to achieve, what is your North Star?"

Fabio: “To be competitive, to be focussed on the team, choose the right players, with mentality first, style of football second, to build the best style of football and the best team we can. This is our target. It’s not so difficult to think this, but we have to know what we have to do to achieve this.”

Ben: Fabio, thank you so much for your time. Good luck for the next month."

Fabio: “Thank you. See you soon.”

Fabio's latest Q&A on Spurs TV