Paratici confident Tottenham have ‘reduced gap’ between them and Man City, Liverpool

Fabio Paratici is confident that Tottenham Hotspur have been able to “reduce the gap” between them and the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool.

The managing director has been at Spurs for just over a year and he was heavily involved in what was a hectic summer for the club.

The likes of Richarlison and Ivan Perisic have hit the ground running and Tottenham now have a lot more depth in their squad under Antonio Conte.

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Paratici told SpursTV: “One year ago I came here and if you remember my first words were we have to be better, build something important and arrive to be competitive.

“I think we’re in a good place, the gap has reduced. We finished in the table 20 points less than Liverpool and Manchester City so this gap is not possible to reduce in a small time but we’re much better.

“Antonio is one of the best coaches in the world, we signed players, we improved players but we have a long way in front of us.

“We start to be more competitive but it’s not enough. We want to be better. We want to be better as a club, person and professionals but I think this club is now going in the right direction.”

A notable shift in policy this summer was Tottenham completing the majority of their transfer business early with the six additions currently part of the first-team group all signed by July 19.

It is in contrast to previous years when Spurs have notoriously waited until the final days of the transfer window to complete deals but a £150million cash injection by ownership group ENIC in May helped Paratici and co get to work early.

“It was a really good summer transfer window,” he added. “First we have to thank ENIC to help us with the equity injection early, to give us the opportunity to make our job easy without economic difficulties.

“We were all together to join our targets, so lucky to join our targets early and get the players ready for pre-season with Antonio to work with the team. Everything was good.

“To do things early is just a question of having a vision.

“The same vision as the club and coach, everyone together making the right decisions to straight away finding out our targets. Not just for Antonio for every coach it’s important to have this kind of solution.

“To get players early you can work, manage them, know them better. It’s easy from a sporting, economic sign and give the right signal to fans.”

Spurs begin their Champions League campaign this week, after two-and-a-half years away.

Paratici wants qualifying for the tournament to become the norm.

He said: “For the other clubs in England, it’s something special to get in the top four and for us has to be a continued target.

“I don’t want to say normal target but it has to become a habit to play Champions League.”