Despite Tottenham Hotspur having been heavily linked with a move for Paulo Dybala for the best part of three years, when the 28-year-old became available on a free following the expiry of his contract at Juventus this summer, Fabio Paratici reportedly turned down the opportunity to bring the forward to north London ahead of the 2022/23 campaign.

Indeed, although Spurs were said to be willing to pay as much as £72.5m to land the Argentina international as recently as January of last year, the Daily Mail revealed back in June that the attacker's £280k per week wage demands were too expensive for Paratici to sanction a move for the playmaker in the transfer window just gone.

And, while this salary would have seen the former Palermo prodigy quite comfortably become the highest earner at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, considering the impact Dybala has made within Jose Mourinho's AS Roma side this season, the Spurs sporting director's decision on the Argentine is already looking to have been something of a mistake.

Indeed, over his six Serie A appearances in 2022/23, the £30m-rated talent has been in sensational form, having already scored three goals, provided two assists and created four big chances for his teammates, in addition to making an average of 3.2 key passes, taking 3.3 shots - 1.3 of which have hit the target - and completing 1.3 dribbles per game.

These metrics have seen the player who James Horncastle dubbed "unreal" and who Mourinho claimed "always makes a difference" average a simply sensational SofaScore match rating of 7.67, not only ranking him as Roma's best performer in the league but also as the best player in the top flight of Italian football as a whole so far this season.

For comparison, should the 28-year-old have achieved these returns for Tottenham in the Premier League this season, he would rank as Spurs' joint second top scorer, joint third-highest assist provider and best big chance creator, as well as highest key pass maker, second most frequent shot taker and joint most successful dribbler - while his average match rating would also rank the Argentine sensation as Tottenham's best performer in the league.

As such, while a £14.5m salary is a great deal of money to spend on one player each year, considering the fact he was available on a free transfer, coupled with his astonishing returns in Serie A so far this season, Paratici must be red-faced whenever he watches Dybala play - as the forward has already proven that the Italian sporting director was wrong to turn him down this summer.