Former Shakhtar Donetsk and Roma boss Paulo Fonseca has revealed his proposed move to Tottenham Hotspur fell through because managing director Fabio Paratici wanted a coach who played defensive football.
Fonseca confirmed rumours that he was close to replacing Jose Mourinho at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, suggesting that talks were so advanced that he was already planning pre-season training.
However, according to the Portuguese coach talks stalled when Paratici became managing director and the club began looking for a more pragmatic coach.
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Nuno Espirito Santo was eventually appointed as Spurs’ coach, and following a promising start to the season the club has lost its last two matches in the Premier League.
“The agreement was done. We were planning the pre-season and Tottenham wanted an offensive coach. It wasn’t announced but we planned pre-season players. But things changed when the new managing director arrived and we didn’t agree with some ideas and he preferred another coach,” Fonseca told the Telegraph.
“I have some principles. I wanted to be coach of the great teams but I want the right project and a club where the people believe in my ideas, my way to play, and this didn’t happen with the managing director.
“It’s what the chairman and the sporting director (Steve Hitchen) asked for. To build a team who can play attractive and offensive football and I was ready for that. I cannot be a different way. All my teams will have these intentions. In Rome or Shakhtar in the Champions League against the biggest teams, I’m not sending out my teams to defend near their own box.”
Fonseca outlined the basis of his attacking philosophy, one which he believes would have fit with the traditions of Spurs.
“The best way to defend is to have the ball,” he said.
“We have an obligation with supporters to create a spectacle, a good show. That is the obligation of the coach. I want to win every game but just winning is not enough for me.
“I have to be offensive and dominate the games and have an offensive midfield and show courage in the game. These are things which will die with me.
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“It happened so many times when I got home after winning a game and my wife asked ‘why are you unhappy?’ And it is because I didn’t win the way I wanted to. It is not enough. I have to create a good show for the people who pay the tickets and love football. At least I try. I cannot be a coach in another way.”
Fonseca has been linked with both Everton and West Ham as well as Tottenham in the past, and he has not given up hope of managing in the Premier League one day.
“I haven’t done it yet so cannot say my way of coaching is perfect for England,” he said. “But there is more open teams, teams trying to win, of course more intensity but also space to develop my game.”
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