Luis Campos gives Arsenal risky decision to make after Edu predecessor's transfer failings

Arsenal are reportedly keen on the transfer guru responsible for some of Europe's best acquisitions in French football, Luis Campos.

, there has been plenty of speculation about who would take over the role.

Campos perhaps stands out among the names due to his work at his highest-profile club, PSG. He grew to prominence with his work at Monaco, where he was responsible in part for the amazing group of players who helped win the league, spearheaded of course by Kylian Mbappe.

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Campos has always overseen great sales of stars he has signed for bargain prices.

Mbappe joined a list of players such as Thomas Lemar, Bernardo Silva, Fabinho, Victor Osimhen, Rafael Leao, Nicolas Pepe and Anthony Martial, who would earn their respective clubs massive fees and huge profits and their relatively low prices. Yet his move to PSG meant swimming in a different school of transfers.

Instead of looking for bargains which would provide competitive quality and potential strong sell-on value, Campos needed to find players who could cost more but had to deliver much more on the field. While still looking at the younger pool of talent, the fees shot up.

Where with Lille and Monaco, Campos would rarely see players cost more than £20million, at PSG the prices rarely fell below it. Randal Kolo Muani signed from Frankfurt for more than £70million and Goncalo Ramos from Benfica for well over £50million are two stand-out signings of recent years, yet neither have hit the mark in the French capital with overwhelming success.

Instead, younger players like Bradley Barcola and Vitinha have been far better. Joao Neves, the priority target of the French side in the summer, has also been a big hit.

It seems Campos has a great eye for young talent and there are some examples of more experienced figures like Fabian Ruiz who has also done very well. Yet these are in the minority for sure.

The question is: if he were to come to Arsenal, what would the strategy look like and would it be able to succeed? Well, the Gunners under Mikel Arteta and Edu certainly also had an emphasis on signing young stars.

However, Arsenal are in a period where the expectations for future deals are on signing those who will take the club to the title and consistent trophies. It is far trickier to translate recruitment strategies in France with some of the most competitive teams in Ligue 1 to a Premier League side.

The French league is much more forgiving for a side like PSG or, at the time, Monaco, who could blood young stars much sooner. For Arsenal, a few losses here and there and the title is all but over for them; they are feeling the pressure of such a scenario right now.

Campos is without question one of the best talent spotters in Europe and has done a great job with the clubs he has worked at. The worry will be whether it can translate, and the Gunners have been down the route before of bringing in a transfer executive who has worked at a big club before – Raul Sanllehi of Barcelona. It did not work out well at all.

The Gunners need to be very careful in who they eventually appoint to be the sporting director. The puzzle piece needs to be as smooth a fit as possible; get it wrong and the long-term ramifications could be horrendous.