Baldini to come in as Technical Director?

[Cavehillspur]

I remember us being linked with him last year. Wouldn't be against this especially if it aides our current transfer activity. AVB says he's all for it.am

Spurs have targeted the Roma general manager to head a new-look recruitment operation at White Hart Lane and are hopeful of luring him to north London this summer

EXCLUSIVE
By Wayne Veysey | Chief Correspondent

Tottenham are confident of luring Franco Baldini to White Hart Lane this summer as they step up plans to overhaul their recruitment operation, Goal.com understands.

Spurs have been tracking the Roma general manager and former England No.2 since last summer after making him their top choice to take on a technical director role at the club.

Baldini is contracted to Roma for another two years but the likelihood is growing that he will leave theGiallorosso for Tottenham at the end of the season.

The 52-year-old's powerbase at the Serie A club has been weakened this season following a series of recruitment decisions that backfired.

Former manager Luis Enrique, players Fernando Gago and Jose Angel, goalkeeping coach Franco Tancredi and head of communication Daniele Lo Monaco were all appointed on Baldini's recommendation and have since left the Olimpico Stadium.

The Roma general manager has ceded control this season on transfer strategy to sporting director Walter Sabbatini, who signed a contract extension in midweek, and his relationship with the club's Boston-based owners is said to have deteriorated considerably

Baldini's €600-a-year (£507k) Roma contract runs until 2015 butTottenham have a long-standing interest in the executive, as revealed by Goal.com last September, and have intensified their pursuit in recent weeks.

A deal with the Londoners has not yet been agreed but sources claim that Baldini could negotiate a settlement with Roma that includes a year's pay-off before signing for Spurs.

The tipping point in his relationship with Roma could well be the Coppa Italia final on May 26, should the club fail to defeat bitter city rivals Lazio.

Spurs have targeted Baldini as they look to overhaul their recruitment operation and create a new senior executive position.

Chairman Daniel Levy wants to reintroduce a continental-style set-up to aid manager Andre Villas-Boas five years after abandoning the director of football model when Damien Comolli was sacked in October 2008.

Villas-Boas, who held talks with Baldini about taking the Roma manager's job last summer, has confirmed he would be comfortable with the introduction of a technical director at Tottenham.

"I have worked with one at Porto and Academica and had no issues with that and I certainly promote that," Villas-Boas said last September.

Senior Spurs officials have bided their time while they wait for Baldini to become available, even though club sources insist that there are other names in the frame for the role.

Baldini is well known to English audiences for his four years with the England national team working alongside Fabio Capello before his departure in 2011 to return to Roma for a second spell.

The former midfielder became director of football at Roma in 1999 and, with Capello, he helped to bring Walter Samuel, Gabriel Batistuta and Emerson to the club. Baldini resigned in March 2005 and joined Capello at Real Madrid a year later.

 

[TheGreenLily]

Would be great to have a DoF rather than Levy, not sure about Baldini as I don't know anything about him.

Levy has done Brilliant for the club overall, but transfers have not been his best play to be honest, but everything else he has done wonders with. We just need to balance and add quality to the depth of squad, the only real thing we are lacking.

@RichSpur58 - Your other thread was closed, so never got the chance to reply to you. Whilst I agree with what you say, there is so much to be positive about.

Sustainably fighting for top four finish
Very exciting youth squad developing (playing 4-3-3) with lots of potential for the future, home grown too.
A young exciting manager (Yes he will cock up now then) who can only learn and develop as the years go by
New stadium
New training facilities already built
Top quality attitude amongst the squad regarding outside and all the charity work we do.
Only 2-3 players away from having a young top top side.
Bale is not going anywhere - More for his young family's sake than anything else I am guessing.

I am sure plenty of other people can add to this, so it is not all doom and gloom, the future is bright, the future is Lilywhite

 

[Gbspurs]

I'm sure the other thread was closed for a reason so probably best not to drag the conversation in here.

I don't mind a DOF but I think AVB is pretty good at identifying talent so would be happy just to back him for a bit.

 

[TheGreenLily]

I'm sure the other thread was closed for a reason so probably best not to drag the conversation in here.

I don't mind a DOF but I think AVB is pretty good at identifying talent so would be happy just to back him for a bit.

If the rumours are true that there is a committee that has to sanction everything, it might be a lot easier for the club overall to get the players AVB identifies and wants to work with, with a DoF.

Just look at the players we went in for and missed because of the flaffing about? With a DoF, I expect it would be easier to get these players, no flaffing and just get them in and cut out the committee crap, but most of all allow Levy to risk spending on players we know little about with a greater chance of them making it... If you know what I mean.

It would be like turning Levy into a rampant raging Bulldog... "Levy go fetch player x"

 

[dontcallme]

We've done superbly under Levy. The club has been transformed and we are competing with sides with much stronger finances behind them. Unfortunately, Liverpool are the only one we have overtaken.

Our finances are stronger and we can now attract a better quality of player. Not sure we'd have been able to get the likes of Lloris and Vertonghen in seasons past.

The one area I think we need to improve on though is player recruitment. Under the DOF we got the likes of Carrick, Bale, Lennon, BAE etc.

Since HR we've bought good players but they have been obvious targets. Premiership proven players so at a high value such as Defoe, Keane, Crouch, Palacios and Dembele. The foreign targets have been obvious as well. The Ajax captain, French keeper and German Under 21 captain.

The right DOF and one that has the same ideas as the head coach could help us make more intelligent signings. Buying the player we need. A couple of our signings and failed signings in the last few seasons has been an issue for us.

 

[scat1620]

Does Baldini have a track record of successfully doing a DoF (or similar job) before moving to Roma? I know he was Capello's assistant but I'm not sure whether that includes relevant areas of experience for taking a DoF job with us. Not that I'm not happy to see the Club looking to bring someone in to work on player recruitment on a full-time basis, more that if Baldini sounds like he's going to be available from Roma because things didn't work out for him while he was there, then I hope he's got a track record prior to Roma that would suggest he won't repeat his Roma mistakes at Spurs.

 

[Wheeler Dealer]

The signings of both Lloris and Vertonghen for reasonable fees was top draw business and both are improvement to squad. Whoever was reasonable for making this happen derserves a lot of credit.

 

[guiltyparty]

Anyone know more details on what went so wrong at Roma?

This article makes it sound like he's had an absolute mare

 

[Shea]

The signings of both Lloris and Vertonghen for reasonable fees was top draw business and both are improvement to squad. Whoever was reasonable for making this happen derserves a lot of credit.

Lloris, Vertonghen, Dembele were all stellar signings - Sig is beginning to show that he too will be a sound investment for the future

It wasn't really the signings we made that were the problem, it was the business we failed to do - more so the business we have repeatedly failed to do that is the issue

Failing to sign a striker other than Dempsey in the summer when we knew from last season Ade and Defoe would not be enough - hence signing Saha - was a mistake. Following that up with again signing no one in Jan to score goals after a half a seasons worth of evidence that Ade was in poor form, Defoe had had his purple patch and Dempsey was contributing next to nothing was just plain madness

For me it's 3 Jan windows in a row where we have failed to react and sign a striker that would likely have seen us obtain CL football, even more windows if you include the summer ones (although twice we added Ade to at least make some progress in that department)

I don't get why we keep hoping to scrape in by the skin of our teeth - or by the skin of Bale's teeth this year - when we've been so well placed to secure CL football every Jan for the last 3 years and it's been quite apparent that a new striker would go a long way to achieving this

Hopefully having a DOF will eliminate whatever issues are causing the barrier to us getting the business done that we really need to get done - it seems to me that we waste time on targets we want but can't afford with Levy thinking he can make clubs play ball with figures we are prepared to pay and end up empty handed. Personally I'd rather a DOF be given a budget and a player type requirement and go out and get deals done for players who match the criteria both from the manager's wants and from LEvy's financial constraints

 

[Ribble]

Anyone know more details on what went so wrong at Roma?

This article makes it sound like he's had an absolute mare

I'm really not sure Roma know where they're going, rather than it being entirely the fault of Baldini. When they brought in Enrique the talk was all of turning themselves into a Barca-like football club, but that seems to have melted away into nothingness now. Also there's this wish to move the club forward coupled with the fanatical worship of Totti who is not a player that any future can be built around.

They strike me as a club divided between what the management and new owner want and what the fans want, and as a result they're not getting the thing that they both want - success.

 

[Syn_13]

I'm really not sure Roma know where they're going, rather than it being entirely the fault of Baldini. When they brought in Enrique the talk was all of turning themselves into a Barca-like football club, but that seems to have melted away into nothingness now. Also there's this wish to move the club forward coupled with the fanatical worship of Totti who is not a player that any future can be built around.

They strike me as a club divided between what the management and new owner want and what the fans want, and as a result they're not getting the thing that they both want - success.

They should never have let Montella go. I thought he was perfectly suited for them and they would've gone on to do better things with him at the helm.

Roma fans are ridiculously hard to please. They feel like they have a right to be up there and fighting for titles but the reality is that they're no bigger a club than we are in our country. A club who have rarely ever challenged for the domestic title, more of a cup team and a team who have the occasional flutter in Europe when they qualify. Their club has revolved around Totti for years and manager/players soon know they're not wanted when they fall out with Totti, and to the fans that man is Roma football club.

Enrique was a nice idea in principle, it wasn't far off us getting AVB. A man who can come in with fresh new ideas, a method and a philosophy to build a team and play a purposeful style. Enrique is a tactically sound guy but Roma was not the club for it, they weren't set up right and ultimately, the players didn't back him. Once the results starting going wrong the fans were ready with their pitchforks.

 

[mk_spur]

Why does the cynic in me think this is a clever ploy to have a scapegoat other than levy when the inevitable collapse of the big striker deal happens at the last minute of the transfer window again......

 

[absolute bobbins]

Shouldn't we actually look at the Porto DoF?

Signs amazing yet unknown South Americans, hired and has a working relationship with our head coach

 

[OmarsComing]

GOAL.COM

 

[Darrkespur]

GOAL.COM

Are actually pretty reliable when it comes to Spurs stuff.

 

[only1waddle]

Shouldn't we actually look at the Porto DoF?

Signs amazing yet unknown South Americans, hired and has a working relationship with our head coach

He probably has a massive buyout clause, and tricky agent to deal with..

 

[Spurrific]

Exclusive, that they back up with a quote from AVB, from last summer.

 

[Syn_13]

Shouldn't we actually look at the Porto DoF?

Signs amazing yet unknown South Americans, hired and has a working relationship with our head coach

A good idea, but those amazing unknown South Americans would be virtually impossible for us to buy. Problems with work permits that Porto can get around.

 

[Indacupfortottenham]

DOF ! PTB (pass the buck) more like it.


Leave it.

 

[absolute bobbins]

A good idea, but those amazing unknown South Americans would be virtually impossible for us to buy. Problems with work permits that Porto can get around.

Good point, it's probably the same kind of system that Spain have with Argentinians, kind of like an inbuilt leniency on entry requirements for former colonies