Southampton ramped up their Portugal scouting under former Benfica manager Ronald Koeman, and have continued to keep an eye on Portuguese talent under new boss Claude Puel.
Given the club bought Cedric Soares on a bargain deal from Sporting in 2015, continuing to keep an eye on Portugal seems the wise thing for Southampton to do.
A Bola match reports over the weekend show that Southampton had someone attend Vitoria Guimaraes’ 1-0 victory over Moreirense on Friday, as well as having a scout watch Rio Ave draw 0-0 with Pacos de Ferreira on Saturday.
Southampton are more used to scouting the bigger Portuguese teams of Benfica, Sporting, Porto and Braga, so maybe at the weekend they were looking for some real potential bargain deals.
Once again it would be no surprise to see several players move from Portuguese football to the Premier League in the summer transfer window, and Southampton are making sure their scouting reports are up to date.
