Gerard Lopez denies losing Luis Campos to the Premier League, having already lost two coaches

Lille owner Gerard Lopez has ruled out losing Luis Campos by insisting the in-demand director of football will not move to the Premier League this summer.

The 55-year-old, who is close friends with Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho, has had offers to leave Lille after the season in France was cut short but Lopez is adamant that any mooted switches are ‘fantasies’ and he will remain in Lille.

Campos worked as a scout for Mourinho at Real Madrid and went on to further enhance his reputation by assembling the Monaco side which won Ligue 1 in 2017. He has since gone on to build a young side at Lille that qualified for this season’s Champions League, losing out to Chelsea in the group stages.

Lille owner Gerard Lopez (above) has ruled out losing Director of football at Lille, Luis Campos 

Manchester United, Chelsea and Newcastle have previously held an interest in acquiring Campos and his close relationship with Mourinho, along with the fact two Lille coaches left earlier this season to move to north London, led to suggestions Lopez was about to lose another key member of staff to the Premier League after the French football season was ended this month.

‘He is not going anywhere,’ Lopez told Sportsmail. ‘It is almost like Luis is yet another Victor Osimhen or Nicolas Pepe!

‘He does get offers all the time and he is very good at sharing them with me or not responding. I can see he gets aggravated by it. Money is not a driver for Luis Campos.

‘He is a guy that is in love with winning and winning, if possible, with young and talented players.

‘I can already tell you now a lot of the stories are unbelievable because the environment that he is being connected with is just not conducive to what he does. He is a brilliant guy at what he does and always these fantasies come up.’

Campos (above), who is friends with Jose Mourinho, has been linked with a move to England 

Man United, Chelsea and Newcastle have previously held an interest in acquiring Campos

On the subject of losing assistant manager Joao Sacramento and goalkeeping coach Nuno Santos to Tottenham earlier this season, Lopez revealed how he had taken personal calls from Mourinho and chief executive Daniel Levy before he sanctioned their exits.

‘Jose (Mourinho), who is also a friend of mine, never stole two guys from us, never,’ Lopez, speaking after launching subscription-based PPE kit StoBox, insisted.

‘I had to read all sorts of c**p about that. The two guys that went (Nuno Santos and Joao Sacramento) came to us in the summer telling us… and this was way before Jose signed at Tottenham. They told us that they were maybe looking for the opportunities and if the opportunities came along, if we would allow them to go.

‘We said, both Luis and myself, “yes, at the end of the season”, OK. And to be very transparent, we thought Jose would have a job at the end of the season and so yes, they might join him and we talked openly with Jose about it.

‘[Jose] called me and said “look, what do you think? If we offer the guys”. The CEO of Tottenham (Daniel Levy) called me also and said “would you let them go?”

‘How would two people go who have a contract with me if I wasn’t OK with that?’

Gerard Lopez was speaking after launching StoBox, a subscription-based PPE kit which he will be using across his own businesses to mitigate future virus-spread.