Baldini emerges as leading candidate to aid Villas-Boas in new Tottenham role

EXCLUSIVE
By Wayne Veysey | Chief Correspondent

Former England No.2 Franco Baldini has emerged as a leading candidate to head a restructure of Tottenham’s recruitment operation, Goal.com can reveal.

Spurs manager Andre Villas-Boas is pushing the credentials of Baldini to take on the senior executive role that will be created by the imminent White Hart Lane overhaul.

Chairman Daniel Levy is looking to re-introduce a continental-style set-up to aid Villas-Boas four years after abandoning the director of football model when Damien Comolli was sacked in October 2008.

Club sources insist there are no plans to appoint a director of football but admit they are actively targeting a recruitment specialist to work directly with Levy, the manager and the scouting team on signing players.

Ian Broomfield, who was brought to the club from Portsmouth in 2009 by ex-boss Harry Redknapp, was sacked as chief scout last week, which followed the departure of scout Peter Senior from the academy set-up.

Levy and Villas-Boas, himself a former scout, have begun a review of Spurs’ recruitment department and have not yet decided whether to replace both Broomfield and Senior as they prepare to bring in a big-hitter in a new executive tier.

Baldini has been personally nominated by Villas-Boas and is believed to have already been sounded out for the post but he is not the only name in the frame.

The Italian is currently general manager of Roma and his €600,000 [£480,000]-a-year contract runs until 2014.

However, his powerbase has been noticeably weakened at the Serie A club in recent months and he is believed to have had little input in Roma’s summer transfer strategy, which was overseen by sporting director Walter Sabbatini and authorised by the club's Boston-based owners.

Baldini, who speaks fluent English, still retains close personal links to London and visited the capital during the recent international break.

The 51-year-old is believed to be interested in a senior Premier League post and is a big admirer of Villas-Boas, who, as revealed by Goal.com, held talks with the Roma chief earlier this year about succeeding Luis Enrique as manager at the Stadio Olimpico before the appointment of Zdenek Zeman.

Baldini is well known to English audiences for his four years with the England national team working alongside Fabio Capello before his departure last October to return to Roma.

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.

The decision to remove Broomfield at White Hart Lane continues the overhaul of Tottenham's recruitment operation. The 61-year-old, who worked with Redknapp at Portsmouth, had been one of the last survivors of the Redknapp-led regime that Levy decided in the summer could take the club no further.