Everton and West Ham both had officials at the same Portuguese match on Sunday. The ‘espioes’ (Portuguese for spies) watched Vitoria Guimaraes beat SC Braga 2-1 away from home on Sunday.
On Friday both clubs had a spy watch Pacos de Ferreira and Moreirense, not an obvious match to watch in the Portuguese league.
There’s every chance an agent is taking the club officials around trying to build possible transfers, and Championship side Fulham also had someone at both the matches.
There’s been no claims as to who Everton and West Ham are watching, at either of the games, and there’s no players who immediately jump out as obvious possible targets. Eibar, Lille, Montpellier, Alaves and Atalanta also attended both the Portuguese matches over the weekend, according to A Bola newspaper.
Everton will be expected to ramp up their scouting of Portuguese football under former Benfica manager Ronald Koeman, with the same happening when the Dutchman joined Southampton.
Slaven Bilic’s West Ham aren’t one of the Premier League clubs most often spotted in Portugal, perhaps that’s beginning to change.
There was clearly someone of note on show, because Manchester United, Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona also had spies at the match.
