Tottenham are expected to confirm Fabio Paratici as their new sporting director later this week.
While he refused to say what his next challenge might be, it is understood it will be at Spurs despite the collapse of talks over Antonio Conte becoming the club's new manager.
Paratici was given a warm send-off by chairman Andrea Agnelli on Friday.
The Italian's first task at Tottenham will be to help chairman Daniel Levy and technical performance director Steve Hitchen in their search for a replacement for Jose Mourinho.
Club sources have defended the club's pursuit of Conte, even though the Italian's abrasive style appeared to run contrary to Levy's stated desire to realign Tottenham to what is "truly in our DNA".