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Football London
Football London
Sport
Chris Wheatley

The state of play with Luis Campos to Arsenal amid Gunners' links with ex-Lille transfer guru

Arsenal have distanced themselves from reports linking Luis Campos with a possible move to the Emirates Stadium.

The 56-year-old left his role at Lille in December 2020 following a change in ownership and has since taken time out of the game, where he's expected to return to football this summer.

Campos is regarded as a transfer specialist who has helped launch the careers of players such as Nicolas Pepe, Bernardo Silva and Anthony Martial.

He has previously worked at Real Madrid alongside Jose Mourinho and was part of the Monaco recruitment team which recruited the likes of Thomas Lemar and Benjamin Mendy for small fees, before later selling them for huge profit.

It was reported by French publication RMC Sport that Arsenal and Real Madrid were among the clubs keen to work with Campos on an informal basis.

However, Arsenal have now poured cold water on suggestions that he could liaise with the Gunners' recruitment team alongside current technical director Edu.

football.london understands that Arsenal are, however, looking to extend their recruitment team, with Edu recently confirming that he had clear ideas on how he wanted to move forward.

The north London side dismantled their scouting network last summer, but recently appointed a headhunting company to recruit new scouts in Germany, France, Spain and the UK.

The departure of Francis Cagigao, the club's former head of international recruitment, is said to have left a 'void' at Arsenal that has yet to be filled, with Edu keen on enhancing his own network.

“It is clear for me,” said Edu in September 2020. “I want to work with less people.

“I want to work with StatDNA a lot more, which we have internally here at the club and is very important. The people I want to work with, I want them to be very close to me. I want to create a group of people working together.

“I don’t want individual people working in one area or for one country. I want a group working together. Less people with much more responsibilities.

“That is my vision and for me in this process the most important thing is that everyone is very clear on the responsibilities which everyone has to make the right decision.”

football.london has learned that Campos will make a decision on his future in the coming weeks, with Real Madrid among the teams coveting his services.

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