To the surprise of absolutely no one, today is an insanely busy day for Tottenham Hotspur.
The last 24 hours have been a whirlwind as Spurs prepare for life in the José Mourinho era. With his announcement has come the inevitable naming of his assistant managers, and they’re both coming from LOSC Lille. Their official Twitter account confirmed, with Hotspur Related providing a translation:
Lille have officially confirmed they have reached an agreement with #thfc for Joao Sacramento and Nuno Santos to join the coaching staff under Jose Mourinho. https://t.co/kBlaPUtg0E
— Hotspur Related (@HotspurRelated) November 20, 2019
The official statement reads as follows:
Au terme de discussions entre le LOSC et le Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, un accord a été trouvé pour entériner le départ de Joao Sacramento et Nuno Santos, membres du staff technique professionnel lillois, et leur permettre de rejoindre à partir de ce mercredi le club anglais.
Dans un premier temps, le LOSC fera appel à des solutions internes pour compenser ces deux départs. Prochainement, le Club annoncera une organisation définitive.
À Joao Sacramento et Nuno Santos, le LOSC souhaite toute la réussite dans ce nouveau projet.
João Sacramento’s role at Lille was Director of Opposition Analysis & Tactical Solutions while Nuno Santos was in charge of goalkeeper preparation. We will probably see one or two more assistants named shortly unless Mourinho is opting for a smaller coaching staff.
Shortly after this announcement, a report broke that Tottenham and Mourinho have set their sights on Luis Campos as a possible Director of Football for the club.
Campos is also at Lille, and while he might be a tad harder to pry away than the assistant coaches, working with Mourinho again may be hard to pass up.
If you aren’t familiar with Campos, he was in charge at AS Monaco when they went through their rebuild after their 2013 transfer window blew up in their faces. Campos was brought in to get rid of Radamel Falcao, James Rodriguez and Joao Moutinho, all of which cost around €150m combined. His purchases include the likes of Tiemoue Bakayoko, Fabinho, Thomas Lemar, Benjamin Mendy and Bernardo Silva. Those names should ring a bell in numerous ways, given they ran roughshod over Spurs in the Champions League group stages a few seasons ago. Now, almost all of them have moved on to high profile clubs.
Campos would be a huge coup for Tottenham. He has connections, knows how to identify players and has worked directly with Mourinho. It would also be nice to have an actual Director of Football again.
Spurs are going through a painful transition, but news like this can help.
UPDATE (10:47 AM): That didn’t take long. Here’s a few more hirings:
We can now confirm the appointments of Joao Sacramento, Carlos Lalin, Nuno Santos, Ricardo Formosinho and Giovanni Cerra as part of Jose Mourinho’s coaching staff.#THFC ⚪️ #COYS
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) November 20, 2019