Arsenal have held talks with former Lille sporting director and famed talent spotter Luis Campos about a role at the club but his arrival would not affect Edu, according to reports.
The 56-year-old left the Ligue 1 champions in December 2020 following a change of ownership, having recruited and built the squad that managed to pip Paris Saint-German to the title.
Campos – who also built the Monaco squad that usurped PSG in 2017 – is regarded as one of the best sporting directors in the world and has been linked with a host of clubs around Europe.
Although he was rumoured to be heading back to Real Madrid, where he worked during Jose Mourinho’s time at the Bernabeu, RMC Sport claim he is also in talks with Arsenal.
After spending some time out of the game since leaving Lille at the end of last year, Campos is ready to make his return and has a number of offers he is weighing up.
According to football.london, Campos has been offered a rather unusual role with the Gunners and would only work with the north London club on an informal, advisory basis.
Arsenal are exploring ways they can enhance their current scouting and recruitment methods and want to tap into Campos’ well of knowledge.
His proposed role would not affect current technical director Edu’s position, with the Brazilian still leading recruitment and responsible for securing deals, and Campos would instead liaise and assist Arsenal’s current recruitment team.
The Portuguese actually sold two players to Arsenal in the last two years – Nicolas Pepe and Gabriel – for a combined £97million, but had bought the pair just a few years earlier for around £10m, making an enormous profit.
Campos has unearthed countless gems over the years before selling them on for huge fees, notably picking up Kylian Mbappe on a free transfer from AS Bondy before getting a mammoth £166m fee for him from PSG just five years later.
Other high-profile players Campos unearthed include: Thomas Lemar, Fabinho, Anthony Martial, Bernardo Silva and Victor Osimhen.
Arsenal actually dismantled their vast scouting network last summer, making a number of scouts redundant, but Edu feels the current setup needs more expertise and wants Campos to enhance the network.
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