There have been managerial missteps and mishaps aplenty in the 22 years of Daniel Levy's tenure at Tottenham - 12 sackings in all - but it could be his appointment of a man who sits closer to his throne that proves to be the biggest weight around his neck.
Tottenham are in disarray at the moment, without a permanent men's or women's head coach and on Wednesday FIFA announced that they had extended managing director of football Fabio Paratici's 30-month ban from all football-related activities, initially handed out by the Italian football federation, into a worldwide one.
Spurs claim that they and Paratici were blindsided by FIFA's statement and that they would never have recorded a much-publicised club interview with the Italian regarding the exit of Antonio Conte less than 24 hours beforehand had they known.
READ MORE: The messy end of Antonio Conte's Tottenham reign and the names in the frame to replace him
Wednesday night's statement brought surprise and rolling of the eyes from many within the club and outside it, a disbelief that a man caught up within a huge storm in Italian football, with Juventus accused of fixing their balance sheets by artificial gains from club transfers, was anywhere near front and centre at Spurs, representing the club publicly. Why would someone sign off on him being the face and voice of a video speaking about Spurs' huge decision to part with Conte?
Following the Italian football federation's investigation into Juventus, Paratici was handed the longest ban of all the charged 11 former and current Juventus executives. He, as do they, all deny any wrongdoing and their appeal against the Italian FA's ban will be heard on April 19.
There is also an Italian court case as part of the Prisma Investigation, which was started by the Turin prosecutor's office with the Serie A club accused of false accounting, market manipulation and false corporate disclosures. A preliminary hearing in that case was postponed on Monday until May 10.
On top of that UEFA also revealed in December that the Club Financial Control Body First Chamber had opened an investigation into Juventus "on the alleged financial violations that were recently made public as a result of the proceedings led by the Italian Companies and Exchange Commission and the public prosecutor in Turin".
With all of that bubbling away in the background around Paratici, not least the fact that the Italian football federation actually ruled against him and handed him that long ban, it's remarkable that the 50-year-old is still involved so heavily at Tottenham, let alone thrust forward as the public face of the club with that strange Zoom meeting video pushed out on Tuesday evening. Many of those others banned had already resigned from Juventus late last year before it even got to this stage.
Yet Paratici has still been intrinsic to everything happening at Tottenham. In the days after his ban was first handed out in Italy in January, agents visiting Spurs' Hotspur Way training complex or meeting with the club were taken aback to find the Italian not only present but leading the discussions with them.
It's entirely in keeping with Tottenham's view though when it comes to Paratici. Investigations into the alleged issues at Juventus had been going for months before the Italian began working for the north London club in June 2021. Either Spurs failed to do their due diligence or simply hoped it would all blow over.
Paratici was a free agent after it was announced that he would be parting ways with Juventus in May that year after more than a decade at the Turin club.
Levy had coveted the Italian for a number of years but his arrival at Tottenham was still a surprise to most at the north London outfit, not least technical performance director Steve Hitchen, essentially the club's sporting director by that point, who is believed to have been unaware that Paratici, a friend of his, was being brought in by Levy to take on much of his role and work over him.
This is not a new occurrence at Spurs, sudden moves pushed through without those affected knowing a thing about them until everything is all but signed and sealed.
The most high profile case was when Tottenham officials were photographed in a Spanish hotel with then Sevilla manager Juande Ramos back in August 2007 while Martin Jol was in charge. Spurs vehemently denied in a statement that they had offered the Dutchman's job to the Spaniard or that any meeting had taken place. Ramos then admitted in his press conference later that week that the north London club made him "an excellent, dizzying offer".
Two months later and Jol infamously found out he had been sacked after the fans did as they chanted his name during a UEFA Cup clash with Getafe. His replacement? Ramos.
Fast forward to 2021 and Paratici quickly made his presence felt at Tottenham as he went about ripping up and restructuring the club.
He and Hitchen, who remained to help with the transition until resigning in February 2022, led a big internal review process of all of the football-related departments throughout the club, from recruitment to the medical and sports science departments and even the players' restaurant.
The result was positive in some aspects with budgets raised and approved by Levy for various areas, including scouting, but it also produced a new cluttered structure within the club which led to many people within it stepping upon each others' toes and remits.
Those who know Paratici say his skills lie in his working of the transfer market - seen as one of the best in the world when it comes to the trading of players - as well as in his strength in dealing with boardroom figures and communicating with the hierarchy of clubs, including his own, and pushing through what he wants to happen to push on the team.
Staff within Spurs claim that Paratici was a rarity in that Levy liked him but was perhaps also somewhat intimidated by the Italian's football knowledge and experience. Paratici is understood to have had no qualms about telling the Tottenham chairman when he was wrong in a situation and to leave the decision to him, a suggestion Levy is unlikely to have heard much during his decades of gripping the steering wheel tightly at the club.
This was the most control Levy had ever given over to someone else at Spurs and Paratici has made an impression on most people within the club in some way or another.
The Italian is said to be very personable with a fun side to him, although his workaholic nature can affect his time-keeping for meetings and various agents have often spoken of sitting alongside many of their colleagues and other characters outside his office while waiting for their time with Paratici.
Most people speak of Paratici being very easy to deal with and likeable. That's not to say that, like his compatriot Conte, the Spurs managing director of football can't be emotional and occasionally volatile, behind the scenes and sometimes in the public arena.
While Paratici is now hidden away up in the directors' box during matches, for much of his time he would sit behind the dugout and his emotions spilling over would sometimes get him in trouble.
He would constantly berate the officials and sometimes the Spurs players and his manic antics so close to opposition fans would cause the odd problem. During one game at St James' Park, not far from the press box, Paratici and Hitchen could be seen clearly winding up Newcastle fans indirectly with their screaming at the referee and some of the home support spoke to stewards asking for the Italian to be removed which only sparked more heated arguments. Another similar incident at Stamford Bridge is understood to have seen Paratici threatened by home fans.
There is a certain irony that having had two emotional Italians at the helm, Spurs will now have one of their compatriots in charge until the end of the season who is the complete antithesis in the calm, collected and thoughtful Cristian Stellini.
With Paratici's expertise lying in the market and the boardroom, his method of dealing with the remainder of the football side of the club is to surround himself with talented individuals who are all experts in dealing with different facets and then they report into him, creating a network of control beneath him.
After Hitchen's exit, Paratici brought in Gretar Steinsson as performance director following his stint at Everton, former Rangers man Andy Scoulding as head of football strategy and ex-Manchester City academy coach Simon Davies as head of coaching methodology. They would work with academy manager Dean Rastrick, who despite reports of his departure is understood to still be very much in place in his role with no intention of leaving after almost two decades of helping produce players for the first team.
Below them there were appointments galore, including a new chief scout in Leonardo Gabbanini from Watford as well as various other scouts at all levels, including emerging talent ones.
Many of the new roles crossed over each other and that led to frustration and some departures, such as emerging talent manager Chris Perkins who left after just over a year and then moved to north London rivals Arsenal for a similar role.
Paratici's dealings with Tottenham's youth set-up have been a mixed bag. In his early months at the club he was not known to be a regular visitor to the academy, although he has since been spotted at the odd UEFA Youth League match at the training ground, having wandered outside from his office at Hotspur Way.
Paratici has also put an emphasis towards paying to bring new players into the academy on top of those they are developing, similar to the model utilised by Chelsea. It is expected that the plan for that model is also to start bringing in players over 18 from around the world.
Will Lankshear was signed by the emerging talent unit for a reported £2million from Sheffield United, while Jude Soonsup-Bell was attracted on a free transfer from Chelsea in January. football.london understands that a third forward, albeit a younger one, in highly-rated 16-year-old Herbie James is to join from Manchester City.
Paratici is understood to have increased the pay structure for youth players, which had been something previous Spurs academy head John McDermott is believed to have been against as he wanted to keep the young players hungrier in their development.
Conte's time was difficult for the academy's development squad as the U21s would often lose players at the last minute from their coaching sessions, or sometimes on the morning of youth matches, to take on roles as a static XI in first team training as the head coach would run through repeated drills with his players.
With Conte a believer in experience over youth - unless the youth was at the level of a senior player already - and Paratici focused mainly on senior affairs, some within the academy claim the gap between the first team and the youth set-up has never been wider despite the best efforts of the new men in the structure to bridge it.
Paratici has concentrated on that first team and the results have been mixed. When it comes to managers, when he arrived in the summer of 2021 he ripped up the original list of candidates Hitchen had prepared for Levy and instead focused on different types of head coaches.
Levy led an effort to get Paratici's former Juventus colleague Conte that summer, a move which collapsed when both sides realised during talks - only seemingly at that point - that they were an awkward fit. Among those on Paratici's list were Gennaro Gattuso, Julen Lopetegui and Nuno Espirito Santo. Paulo Fonseca was one name who cropped up on both the post and pre-Paratici's shortlists.
The Portuguese came close to getting the job, with visas being sorted for him and his family to arrive in the UK, but at the last moment Paratici did a u-turn after concerns about Fonseca. Gattuso was turned to but an outcry from Spurs fans over his previous controversial comments on a range of topics saw Levy veto that move.
Sevilla's president Jose Castro claimed Spurs made a "dizzying" offer to Lopetegui. The use of that same word 14 years after Ramos did not go unnoticed.
Levy was initially unconvinced by Paratici's belief that Espirito Santo could be a good candidate. The Italian had had the Portuguese on his shortlist at Juventus at one point and he is understood to have convinced the Tottenham chairman that attractive football would be played by showing him videos of Espirito Santo's Valencia side.
Levy was convinced and Espirito Santo was hired. Three months into the season he was fired, the football anything but attractive. Levy pushed through a move for Conte, ignoring the previous clear differences in talks.
In the transfer market, Paratici has had a couple of big successes. The arrivals of Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur from his old club were transformative in his and Conte's first season as those two signings played a major part in bringing Champions League football back to Tottenham.
There is also Cristian Romero. Paratici pushed to sign the Serie A Defender of the Year and while his disciplinary record needs work, the World Cup-winning Argentine has the potential to become a world class defender for the long-term for Spurs.
Critics might suggest that Paratici's three best signings have all been players he's had a part in signing before at Juventus.
Elsewhere his signings have had differing impacts and previous criticisms in Italy that he struggled to sell players at Juve have so far been the case at Tottenham, with Premier League wages proving difficult for foreign teams to match.
Also with incoming players, the Italian was torn between signing young talented players to fit the club's profile and the experienced ones that Conte wanted. That would occasionally result in moves for the likes of Djed Spence and Arnaut Danjuma who would sit there unused by a clearly disapproving head coach.
Conte and Paratici's dynamic was an interesting one. They had worked together at Juventus but were never described as being particularly close. At Tottenham Conte was the dominant character in their dynamic and the two would speak every day. Towards the end Paratici was the head coach's biggest ally on the board but was unable to keep the breaking relationship between Conte and the club from falling apart.
Now Paratici's own relationship with Spurs risks dissolving. The FIFA ban states that he cannot carry out any football-related activities which renders it impossible to do his job for the north London club, although there are some suggestions that he may be able to continue for a while while he appeals that decision and asks for clarification.
There are many more battles to come though with, on top of those various investigations, reports from Italy indicating that other aspects of recent seasons at Juventus are being looked into.
Some might suggest that Levy and Spurs are simply giving Paratici every possible chance to be exonerated, others might suggest there's more to it legally, while most would wonder why they got involved with him in the first place. He was set to lead the club's hunt to replace Conte, having started to compile a shortlist, but it's difficult to see that happening now.
Tottenham's statement on Wednesday night was one that many will be familiar with coming out of the club, pointing fingers at everyone but themselves. The club's motto may as well be To Blame Is To Do.
With a board that do not speak publicly - Paratici was meant to fix that but he never really did and now should not - it falls on the unfortunate Stellini to be their face yet again in Friday afternoon's press conference. It is his first as interim head coach and it will be dominated by questions about both Paratici and Conte, two men he had no control over.
It brings back memories of the first press conference for Ryan Mason - now Stellini's assistant - when he took charge in 2021 as interim head coach. Not only was the then 29-year-old stepping into the shoes of Jose Mourinho but he also had to speak in the immediate aftermath of Spurs' involvement in the Super League fiasco.
It's a mess right now at Tottenham. No permanent head coach of the men's and women's team, a managing director of football who is banned from managing or directing football, talk of imminent rises to season ticket prices - unless the hierarchy fear the response - and their star player in Harry Kane about to enter the final 12 months of his contract.
Spurs return to action at Everton on Monday night and the noisy travelling fans are unlikely to be quiet with their frustrations with the calls made in a club that seems stuck in a loop of missteps when it comes to their football decisions.
Appoint, sack, fix, restructure, buy, sell and repeat until something sticks. The sporting director structure is meant to prevent exactly that problem, yet if Paratici does end up having to step away from his duties then much of what the Italian has created is expected to be ripped up and built over again.
The question is whether he should have been there in the first place and definitely whether he should have been appearing via a grainy video feed when the noise around him is at its loudest. For all of the finger-pointing they do, Tottenham Hotspur are often their own worst enemy.
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