Another interesting Football Manager challenge where you'll try to replicate one of the best directors of football, Luis Campos.
Another interesting Football Manager challenge where you’ll try to
replicate one of the best directors of football, Luis Campos.
Football Manager challenge where the roles of Manager and Director of Football meet. As you get your player sale profits up whilst maintaining a strong squad by signing replacements, generally at a cheaper price.
Firstly, let’s learn about the great man that this challenge is based on.
Who is Luis Campos?
It is clear Campos’ has the eagle eye to spot a great deal for a player but also the know-how of transfer price negotiation. A friend of Jose Mourinho, who employed Luis Campos as a scout during his final season at Real Madrid (2012/13 season) but after Mourinho’s departure, Luis Campos landed the role of Director of Football at AS Monaco in France’s Ligue 1.
During his three year spell, Campos oversaw transfers, including James Rodriguez, Fabinho, Anthony Martial and Bernardo Silva, leaving for big money, to name a few. Between 2017-2020, it was the same role at Lille OSC in the same league, helping shape the squad that went on to pip PSG to that famous title win.
Luis Campos is a free agent currently and has been linked with a host of clubs in the Premier League in Newcastle United, Spurs, Arsenal and Manchester United. Whoever does gain his sought after services have a lot to look forward to…
The Business of Luis Campos
If you look at Thomas Lemar, for example, moved from Caen to AS Monaco for a small fee, and then Campos secures a £72 million move to Atletico Madrid. A move that has been up and down for Lemar; it was better business for AS Monaco, that’s for sure.
Another sale that stands out is the sale of Nicolas Pepe to Arsenal, again for £72 million. This was a deal spread over 5 seasons (£14.4 million instalments), and Campos has clearly taken the Arsenal hierarchy for a ride with this fee. It’s clear you cannot question his transfer business acumen.
The Challenge
Now, before we take a look at the ins and outs, just remember that with any team that you use for the challenge, the aim is to always be successful. Aim for domestic trophies, league titles and even the Champions League as you become the ultimate manager and businessman within the footballing world.
There are two sides to the challenge in considering player signings and player sales with targets to achieve at each club you manage, but there is one main rule that must be followed season on season. If the below rule isn’t achieved, you must resign from your role and find another club!
The amount of money made from player sales must exceed the amount spent at the end of each season.
Here is an example of this; as you will see, the ‘in’ total is £24 million, and the ‘out’ total is £65 million. The other way round and it’s a trip to the job centre!
Player Sales Targets
Here are some targets to aim for whilst playing; it is all about making profits on the players that you sell.
- Make a £10 million pound profit on a player
- Make a £25 million pound profit on a player
- Make a £50 million pound profit on a player
- Make a £75 million pound profit on a player
- Make a £100 million pound profit on a player
Check out the career stats of a player to see how much the club paid for them before your time there, and if they’re an academy product, then they are considered as free. How many times can you achieve the above?
Player Signing Targets
You can see Luis Campos knows how to get the best price for players but keep in mind quite a few of the players he has sold; he has also signed and at a much cheaper price than the sale price. Some sold players will require replacing, so the below is just some targets to look for throughout the save.
- Replace a sold player 10% cheaper than the relating sale price
- Replace a sold player 25% cheaper than the relating sale price
- Replace a sold player 50% cheaper than the relating sale price
- Replace a sold player 75% cheaper than the relating sale price
- Replace a sold player 100% cheaper than the relating sale price
Need to work out the percentage? Here is an easy way to do it on your phone or any calculator. Let’s use an example of £5 million as the sale price of the sold player. If we wanted to work out 10% of that on a calculator, you would put ‘10’ then press ‘%’ this will bring up 0.1, then multiply by 5,000,000, which should give you 500,000. Then simply subtract the latter from the £5 million giving you £4.5 million.
Clubs to Manage
The two clubs Luis Campos has done his amazing work at were very good teams but not top tier clubs like Real Madrid, Juventus or Bayern Munich. This is why the achievement of Lille OSC winning Ligue 1 in 2020/21 was widely publicised as it was unexpected, to say the least. Here are five clubs below who would make this challenge exciting;
Valencia C.F
Now Valencia have always been a well-known club in La Liga and around Europe. In the early 2000s, they enjoyed league and domestic trophy success, won the UEFA cup and even reached Champions League finals.
Over the past 10 years or so, though, it has been a difficult time for the club after some financial difficulties a revolving door of managers, which resulted in them now becoming more of a mid-table team in Spain. However, the current squad has a lot of sale potential, and the club is still big enough to attract new stars.
Wolves
Wolves are a club you can really channel your inner Luis Campos due to their squad of many Portuguese players, and of course, the last couple of managers have been of Portuguese descent.
In general, Wolves are a very good and exciting team to watch. There is definitely potential for this club to start picking up domestic trophies or at least becoming more prominent in European competitions.
A good amount of high-value players means there is certainly money to be made for new arrivals and start building a similar dynasty to Mr Campos.
AC Milan
One of the biggest clubs in the history of Italian football who have faded into the background in recent seasons but look to be on the way up again, after some regain of stability within the playing squad and for the club in general.
Taking AC Milan back to the top will forever be a great project on Football Manager, but in terms of the transfer profit side of things, this club may be the hardest out of who is recommended.
Italian teams generally have massive squads, and keeping everyone happy could be difficult. At the same time, there is plenty of profit to be had in Milan as there is a plethora of talent throughout the team, varying of different age groups.
RB Leipzig
Don’t get me wrong, RB Leipzig isn’t everyone’s cup of tea due to the franchise feel given by Red Bull. Personally, I think it’s a very well ran club and if it’s not eventually Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig is probably your next best bet to knock Bayern Munich off their everlasting perch (bar this season so far).
Leipzig generally carry a good squad and with how they develop players too, there is always value to be had when it comes to selling players. Still, an exciting project of a club to this day, if the cards are played right this club could be taken to the next level.
Links with the other Red Bull teams such as Salzburg and New York could make finding replacements for any sold player a lot easier than scouring the scouting network for what you need.
AS Monaco
That’s right, one of Luis Campos’ former clubs but they are a great project as they battle season by season to try and solidify themselves around the top parts of Ligue 1 but it just doesn’t happen consistently enough.
AS Monaco have always been an interesting club to takeover and have plenty of talent throughout the squad, who could be sold and replaced with a cheaper player.
The club is still a big draw to players and you should be able to attract some stars (within reason of course) which will aid in propelling Monaco back to the top of Ligue 1 and getting amongst the Champions League once again.
What Now?
All that is left to do at this point is load up FM22 and get amongst the challenge itself! See how much profit you can make season on season to show the footballing world that big stars who leave can always be replaced. Channel your inner Luis Campos and you might be surprised what you can do when you have your economical mindset going.
If you do start the challenge, reach out to us on Twitter @DP_FM_ and show us how it’s going by mention or via direct message. It would be awesome to see some of the projects that the FM community are coming up with playing this way.
Enjoy it, it’s different and is a generally fun challenge.
READ MORE: List of Football Manager challenges
