Now that Michael Emenalo is no longer at Chelsea, Chelsea’s most important upcoming signing will be a new technical director. Marina Granovskaia has overtaken his duties on a temporary basis, but the club is reportedly actively seeking a direct replacement.
Chelsea is purportedly targeting Luis Campos to replace Michael Emenalo as technical director. Campos was the architect of the excellent AS Monaco side that reached the semifinals of last season’s Champions League and beat Paris Saint-Germain to the Ligue 1 title. Campos scouted and signed some of the most sought-after players in the world during his time in the principality, including Kylian Mbappé, Thomas Lemar, Benjamin Mendy, Bernardo Silva, Anthony Martial and the Blues’ very own Tiemoué Bakayoko.
Younger players like these are Campos’ main area of expertise, which lines up well with Chelsea’s current transfer policy. Campos currently works at Lille with the always entertaining but possibly insane Marco Bielsa, but Campos is supposedly interested in the prospect of coming to London.
Hiring Campos could be one of Chelsea’s most important administrative moves in a long time. As the summer transfer window proved, there is no logic or sensibility at the top end of the transfer market anymore. If PSG can avoid serious Financial Fair Play ramifications from the Neymar and Mbappé deals, that level of spending will likely continue at the hyper-rich clubs.
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Campos could provide a more focused version of Chelsea’s current “buy-low sell-high” model that has been the genesis of the club’s innovative, albeit divisive, loan army. Whereas the current strategy involves bringing in a boatload of young players, a vast majority of whom will be sold for marginal profits, Campos could hopefully bring in fewer players, but ones who are more likely to become first team regulars. More Andreas Christiansens, fewer Stipe Pericas (Who? Exactly.).
Obviously, this is a transfer strategy that any club would love to have, but it takes a keen eye and plenty of experience in identifying young talent. Only a handful of scouts and technical directors are truly great at it. Campos could create a sustainable, world-class approach to player acquisition and development.
Given the impending redevelopment of Stamford Bridge due to begin next year, more measured transfer spending will be important in making sure Chelsea remains financially solvent over the next few years. Alvaro Morata may be the last record transfer fee the club pays for quite awhile. Even in Morata’s transfer, the club was smart in agreeing to a deal that “only” cost the club an initial £58 million, with that fee rising to £70 million after incentives.
At AS Monaco, Campos oversaw a transformation (transfer-mation?) by moving away from the surprising mega-deals the club made for Radamel Falcao and Joao Moutinho in 2013 after the takeover by Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev (the same Dmitry Rybolovlev who recently purchased Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi” painting for a record breaking $450.3 million. Suffice to say, responsible spending isn’t his strong suit).
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Luis Campos is a technical director who was responsible for creating one of the youngest and most exciting teams in Europe. He also has specific experience restructuring a club’s transfer policy that was previously dependent on the nigh-infinitely deep pockets of a Russian oligarch. Chelsea could do much worse.