Chelsea were one of seventeen sides to send scouts to watch Porto’s clash with Braga on Friday evening.
That’s according to A Bola, who fail to provide any information on whom the Blues were watching in the game.
Portugal is a hotbed of scouting for Premier League sides, with every club in the league having games scouted at one time or another.
Chelsea are not a regular name on the list, but they changed that on Friday, sending someone to watch the eventual 4-1 win over Braga and we think we know who they were looking at.
Earlier this month we covered a report from A Bola that stated they had made a bid for Porto’s Mehdi Taremi, with it explained that was an initial effort to discover if a deal was possible.
Porto told them it wasn’t but explained Chelsea’s interest was longstanding, as they’d been watching him last season as well.
The Blues also spoke to the player’s agent about the switch and were told he’d be keen, but Chelsea weren’t interested in activating his €60m release clause and things went no further than that.
With five goals and three assists to his name in Portugal so far, though, perhaps Chelsea’s interest has not gone away and they’re keeping an eye on the 30-year-old.
That would make sense given they still need a striker, although his age would make it something of a strange move given their determination to focus on youth under Todd Boehly’s regime.
Either way they had a scout at Porto last night and given the report earlier this month, Taremi would be the obvious focus of their attention.
