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Some potentially exciting news is breaking right now in France. Journalist Matt Spiro, referencing French TV station Canal +, is reporting that recruiting “wizard” Luis Campos is not only leaving his current club Lille but is now set to join his friend Jose Mourinho at Tottenham Hotspur.
Potentially a huge coup for Tottenham as Canal+ claim Lille sporting director Luis Campos is joining up with his friend José Mourinho at Spurs
— Matt Spiro (@mattspiro) May 19, 2020
As always, caution is warranted until we get better sourcing on this, as the current report is a football journo presumably reporting on what he just saw on telly. Jason Burt of the Telegraph is warning Spurs fans to pump the brakes, suggesting there’s no deal in place, for now, anyway.
My understanding is.. Luis Campos wants to quit as Lille’s sporting director but despite Jose Mourinho’s relationship with him there is absolutely no deal in place for him to join Tottenham Hotspur.
— Jason Burt (@JBurtTelegraph) May 19, 2020
So there’s a lot of smoke in the air right now, but nothing solid in terms of a deal that we can hang our hats on. That’s fine. I choose hope.
Campos has an extremely good reputation as a football recruiter and identifier of talent, especially lower-priced or undervalued talent, having helped develop that insanely good Monaco team from a few seasons ago. He also helped launch the careers of Anthony Martial, Thomas Lemar, and Bernardo Silva.
Additionally, while never having been employed by Spurs, Campos is already a Tottenham legend after convincing Arsenal to pay £72m for Nicolas Pepe last summer.
We don’t know what role Campos would serve at Spurs under Mourinho, but the rumors right after Mou took charge in North London was that he wanted Campos to serve as his Director of Football or technical director. One would assume he’d work closely with Mourinho to identify young talent and bring them through, which is exactly what needs to happen at Spurs in order to refresh the squad.
Just imagine having someone not only good at their job, but legitimately GREAT at it identifying players this summer for Daniel Levy to buy (or trade, or whatever) and Mourinho to coach. That’s great even if this summer turns out to be a wash due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s even more important to have a Director of Football in place in times like these when the sport is changing dramatically and there’s a great deal of uncertainty. Having Campos at Tottenham will pay dividends, even if they don’t come immediately.
We’ll stay on top of this. For now, time to get excited.