There is still an Italian influence at Tottenham Hotspur in the shape of chief scout Leonardo Gabbanini - a man set to help rebuild the squad to suit the needs of Ange Postecoglou.
The 43-year-old Gabbanini was brought in last July by former managing director of football Fabio Paratici to find the best buys for Antonio Conte's very set system as well as the club's academy. Less than a year later and only the Florence-born Gabbanini remains of an Italian trio that once held a big influence over the direction of Spurs.
football.london understands that Gabbanini has been in constant daily dialogue with Spurs chairman Daniel Levy since Paratici's resignation in April.
It was Gabbanini who met Postecoglou earlier this month and was revealed by football.london to have been involved among others, including Levy and Ryan Mason, in the Australian's first meeting to discuss transfers at the club's Hotspur Way training complex in Enfield.
As much as it would be folly to think Postecoglou only has a strong knowledge of Australian and Asian talent - some in fact suggest he has a near encyclopaedic knowledge of players across the world - the same definitely applies to anyone who thinks Gabbanini is only concerned by the Italian market.
Those who know Gabbanini say he has a great eye for talent across the globe, one honed across a career that before Spurs had him operating high within the Pozzo scouting network at Udinese and Watford. At the latter, he headed up their domestic UK network and some say his knowledge of the South American market is also strong.
READ MORE: Tottenham confident of completing Guglielmo Vicario transfer after Fabio Paratici involvement
The Italian is also a very modern style of scout in that he uses data heavily to back up what he sees after he has watched a player. Paratici is understood to have leaned on him for that analytical side of the game as well as former long-time Juventus scout Lorenzo Giani, another person brought in by the former managing director of football into a role as the club's 'consultant international football scout'.
When it comes to recruitment, Gabbanini is not one to sit on the fence. He will quickly evaluate a player and deliver a firm opinion.
He will turn to the Italian market at times and Gabbanini agreed with Paratici's belief before his exit that Empoli goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario could be a perfect fit at Tottenham. The north London club now look set to bring in the 26-year-old amid interest in the stopper from Inter and other clubs across Serie A and Europe.
As a former coach at both senior and youth level, Gabbanini is said to look at the complete picture of a player rather than just their talent. How will they fit into a system, what is their mentality like, what are the numbers like for their workrate and how will they fit well within another culture, country and squad. It is those attributes that will help him build Postecoglou's squad.
Gabbanini was brought in to expand and improve Spurs' scouting network and he expects high standards from his scouts, including detailed reports, analysis and data. It is no coincidence that the north London club have been tipped this summer to improve the quality of the data available to their analysts going forward because it's an area of ever-growing importance in such a pressurised market.
The Italian is a passionate, direct talker, a workaholic like Paratici, and is not one to mince his words. That style does not go down well with everyone. Some simply say he is a 'character', others he has crossed have claimed his style can come across as arrogance and his confidence in his work has not always rubbed up people the right way.
For Gabbanini is not afraid to make a decision and his moves to improve the club's youth scouting network soon ran into some problems within Paratici's cluttered new structure at Spurs. Gabbanini's own youth scouts eventually meant too many cooks in the kitchen along with the only recently-created emerging talent recruitment section.
Paratici and Tottenham's former technical performance director Steve Hitchen had brought in Chris Perkins from Everton to head up that department in October 2021, with scouts such as Chris Scudder, formerly of West Ham and Brentford. Within six months of Gabbanini's arrival, Perkins had left for a similar role at Arsenal and Scudder departed this month to become the head of London recruitment for Wolves.
Gabbanini looks at signings for all levels and his attention towards the academy comes from his years spent as a coach in the youth set-ups at Sampdoria and Fiorentina. It was at the latter that he became head of academy coaching before leaving for the Pozzo family's work and the dual-role at Watford and Udinese.
At Spurs he works with performance director Gretar Steinsson, head of football strategy Andy Scoulding and also Simon Davies, who was promoted this week to academy director in the wake of Dean Rastrick's departure. Gabbanini has worked to help create a recruitment structure that links both the academy and first team.
He likes things done his way and the chief scout is well connected in the game, credited to his preference of having direct contact with players' agents rather than going through intermediaries.
Many who have worked with the Italian in recent years on various transfers believe he has the potential to become a director of football figure in the future.
Tottenham are looking for such a person at the moment, although they may want someone with more experience at this point in time to fill the gap between Postecoglou and new chief football officer Scott Munn.
football.london understands that a number of clubs across Europe, particularly Italy, are monitoring Gabbanini's situation in case the arrival of a new director of football at Spurs eventually leads to his exit.
For now, the task at hand for Gabbanini is to transform a squad built for a very specific type of manager in Conte into one that fits another clear-minded individual in Postecoglou who has completely different beliefs about how football should be played to his predecessor.
In October last year, Gabbanini gave an interview to Radio FirenzeViola, in which he said: "It's going well in England, it's a completely different reality, I've been working there for five years now, before I was at Watford as chief scout.
"Now it's a different world at Tottenham, there's a very high value in everything you do. In short it's tough, but it also gives you satisfaction."
The key this summer for Gabbanini is to give Postecoglou satisfaction as he shapes the squad to fit the incoming Australian. Get it right and Spurs could flourish under their new head coach, get it wrong and he will become another Tottenham boss trying to build a jigsaw with all the wrong pieces.
