Manchester United are keen on Inigo Vicente, according to several claims coming from Spain.
Tuesday’s edition of AS reports club ’emissaries’ weren’t sent to watch the player in action at the weekend, when the 20 year old played for Athletic Club Bilbao’s second string against Barakaldo.
El Desmarque say the youngster is ‘on the radar’ of Manchester United. They complain ‘one of the evils’ of football these days is that clubs even ‘stalk’ players still coming through the ranks.
The club official sent is Toni Lima, a scout, and it’s stated Vicente has a €8m buyout clause.
That’s what Athletic would ask for if they rate the player, and United surely wouldn’t be interested if they didn’t.
Other youth players at the club of interest to English clubs are named as Unai Vencedor and Víctor San Bartolomé, although there’s nothing from El Desmarque about United specifically.
A couple of days ago, Marca reported Lima had been scouting Athletic youngsters, and they named all of those above, and added Gaizka Larrazabal.
This will be especially frustrating for Athletic. The club have a strict recruitment policy of only signing players from the Basque region, or with very strong links.
They protect themselves against transfers with high buyout clauses. There’s been a new twist recently, with Iker Muniain’s new contract having no clause at all. That means Spanish courts would have to decide cancellation terms if it came to it.
Due to their recruitment policy, Athletic bring a lot of players through from their youth ranks, and if those are now being targeted it can’t be long before 18 year old’s are given eye watering clauses… or put on the Muniain plan.
Back to Inigo Vicente. He’s been playing as an attacking midfielder or second striker this season and has 4 goals in 13 matches for the second string.
Last season he scored 10 goals.
