Johan Lange, the current global head of football development and international academies at Aston Villa, is said to have conducted talks with Tottenham Hotspur about replacing outgoing director of football Fabio Paratici.
Italian Paratici resigned from Spurs earlier this year after FIFA imposed a 30-month ban on any football activities, which was partially reduced on appeal. Villa’s Premier League competitors have been operating without an equivalent since then.
Lange, who previously assisted Stale Solbakken during his ill-fated spell in charge of rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers, arrived at Villa from FC Copenhagen in his native Denmark in the summer of 2020 as Villa sought to build on their dramatic Premier League survival. On his watch, the Lions recruited the likes of Matty Cash, Emi Martinez, Ollie Watkins and Ross Barkley.
This past summer, though, Lange – who had replaced Jesus Garcia Pitarch upon arrival – moved away from his sporting director role as Villa brought in Monchi to become their president of football operations. In the restructuring, Lange was handed a new role. Now, according to The Athletic, he could be on the move within the Premier League with Spurs considering an appointment.
They add that a potential departure, and how it would affect the structuring and the operation of the club, has been ‘discussed internally’ by Villa officials. Should Lange switch clubs, he would report into Tottenham’s new chief football officer Scott Munn, who arrived in North London last month.
Villa recently announced a wave of new faces at senior level, onto their Senior Leadership Team. The president of Villa’s business operations, Chris Heck, has introduced the quartet who have arrived to fill senior roles throughout the team.
Ron Erskine will be the club’s new chief commercial officer, Ben Hatton will be the chief operating officer, Richard Stevens will be the vice president of strategy and analytics, and Ryan Disdier will be the vice president of content and digital. Ahmed Elmohamady’s ambassadorial status has likewise been made permanent.
