Burnley have joined the growing number of Premier League, and some Championship, clubs who send scouts to Portugal.
It’s seen as almost a matter of pride in Portugal when clubs send their officials to check out players, and list are sent to the Portuguese press. Subsequently it’s known which clubs are scouting which, and sometimes obvious who the target may be.
That’s not the case for Burnley, just yet anyway. The club don’t have a long record of scouting in Portugal, or any record to speak of at all.
On Sunday they had someone watch Pacos de Ferreira lose 2-1 to Sporting, report O Jogo, and there were some big names on show.
Maybe out of Burnley’s price bracket
The biggest names on the pitch all come from Sporting, with Gelson Martins, Bas Dost, William Carvalho and Bruno Fernandes all appearing.
It’s unlikely Burnley would want to spend the money needed to sign any of those. Others like veteran Fabio Coentrao and goalkeeper Rui Patricio don’t seem to be of use to Sean Dyche right now.
There were a couple of good performances on the home side, despite the loss, with central defender Marco Baixinho and striker Mabil coming out with credit.
In isolation
Given this trip form Burnley is in isolation and they have no record of regularly scouting either club, it’s best to wait and see if a pattern develops before educated guesswork over targets.
