It’s no secret that Jose Mourinho raided Lille for coaching talent when he assumed the vacant managerial post at Tottenham Hotspur. Assistant coaches Joao Sacramento and Nuno Santos both left their posts at the Ligue 1 side to join Mourinho in north London, something that understandably rankled the club.
But Mourinho also wanted to poach football consultant Luis Campos from Lille to be his technical director. Campos and Mourinho worked together at Real Madrid a number of years ago and the two obviously respect each other greatly. Lille, however, refused to let Campos go in the middle of the season.
The links connecting Campos and a move to Tottenham are now re-emerging. Today, RMC (via Football.London) is reporting that Campos has requested that his contract, which has three years remaining, be cancelled so that he can leave the club. Apparently Campos was unhappy that he was frozen out of some key decisions at Lille, and is ready to move on.
Staff contracts aren’t quite like player contracts. Generally once a staff member wants to leave, it’s just a matter of time and negotiation. But just because Campos wants to go doesn’t mean that he’ll end up at Spurs. Manchester United are also apparently interested in Campos as they retool their recruitment and transfer strategy.
I don’t know enough about Campos to know if he’d be a good technical director in England, but he seems like someone who would work well with Mourinho, and he has a proven record of success, having had a part in recruiting and developing Thomas Lemar, Bernardo Silva, Anthony Martial, and others. Spurs haven’t had a technical director in place since Franco Baldini, but if Mourinho’s open to having someone take those aspects of a manager’s job off his plate, then I’m all for it.
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I just hope that this deal falls through as it will help in terms of some decision making