Watford scouts are reportedly have a lot of work to do tonight, as they’ve travelled to Greece to watch AEK playing Rijeka in the UEFA Europa League.
It’s the Portuguese newspaper A Bola who reports the story, saying that the Hornets’ emissaries have three targets involved in the game.
One of them would be AEK midfielder André Simões, who’s the main man in the article. Although A Bola makes a big deal out of the interest, they don’t make it very clear what’s their own info and what’s not.
There are quotes from the player, for example, saying he’s focused on his club right now, even though they are not properly credited.
“I know there are clubs from superior leagues interested in me, but this scenario doesn’t disturb me. I’m AEK’s captain and I want to be concentrated on my obligations with the team.”
Then the newspaper takes claims from the Greek press to say that Simões is close to signing a new contract with AEK. Besides the pay rise, his release clause is also being increased from €7.5m to €10m.
Signed from Moreirense on a bargain deal two years ago, Simões is highly rated at the Greek side, getting all the possible starts there. So it would be very unlikely to get him for much less than the release clause.
There are also the two other players from the away side who Watford would be interested in, according to the claims.
That’s striker Mario Gavranovic and midfielder Josip Misic, although the latter is actually suspended and won’t be featuring in tonight’s game.
Gavranovic has an impressive record of 11 goals this season, and with his contract expiring next June, it’ll be interesting how the race to sign him will go through.
With five assists and three goals, Misic has also been doing well for Rijeka, but recently renewed his contract and is protected by a deal until 2020. So he should be harder to get, although Watford certainly have the money to convince a Croatian side.
The Portuguese interest is down to Marco Silva, and it seems he’s got his spies looking towards the future.
