Espanyol admit Tottenham target Pau Lopez could leave should a good offer arrives

Tottenham Hotspur have been given a boost in Mauricio Pochettino's hopes to sign Pau Lopez after Espanyol's sporting director, Angel Gomez, admitted that the goalkeeper could leave the club should a good offer arrive. Gomez said the 21-year-old starlet still belongs to the La Liga team, but refuses to confirm whether Pau will be part of next season's campaign after it emerged that Spurs have earmarked his signing as a priority.

The Spanish under-21 international goalkeeper was promoted by Pochettino to Espanyol's first team during the Tottenham boss's tenure in La Liga, despite Lopez only being a teenager. Pau has made a good progress since then, and last season took advantage of the departure of Kiko Casilla to Real Madrid to establish himself as the Catalans' number one goalkeeper. Former Spanish manager Vicente Del Bosque rewarded him with a spot in the preliminary squad ahead of Euro 2016, alongside 10 other youngsters.

However, Pau's future at Espanyol has come under scrutiny after new manager Quique Sánchez Flores secured the services of Roberto Jiménez from Olympiacos to be his number one, having coached him during his time at Atlético Madrid.

Earlier this month, Sport broke that Pochettino was ready to take advantage of the situation to bring Pau to White Hart Lane as a prospect for the future, expecting him to be the back-up for Hugo Lloris in the short-term before having a chance to become Spurs' top goalkeeper. But later Sport reported that Espanyol had rejected an opening offer of around €2m (£1.7m) from Tottenham and were demanding around €5m, plus the loan of Federico Fazio, who finally joined AS Roma instead.

The report added that Tottenham are expected to make a new attempt to secure Lopez, and the Espanyol's Gomez has now given Pochettino the chance to clinch the deal, should the offer interest every party.

"[Pau] is our goalkeeper, he belongs to Espanyol and has a good potential. I have great confidence in him (but) if there is an economic proposal very interesting (for the club) and that convince him (to leave) we will have to make a decision. But in the meantime, he is Espanyol player," Gomez admitted as quoted by AS.

Lopez is said to be likely to make the move to the Premier League and has reportedly even ruled out another proposal from the Seria A, with hopes to complete his move to Tottenham.

But when asked whether the custodian has asked the club to let him go, he only replied: "Pau is a Espanyol player and he must fight for his place [in the line-up]."