Man United ‘shark’ in Portugal last night checking out players with Barcelona

 

The Portuguese media are brilliant at getting scouting lists for matches, and A Bola have published a list of those who attended the match between Portugal’s U21 side and their counterparts from Greece.

Usually termed by the Portuguese media as ‘spies’, the scouts attending the U21 match were labelled ‘sharks’. That’s probably not supposed to be offensive from A Bola, the Portuguese press always seem to take pride in interest in the country’s players.

Manchester United had a shark at the match, along with other big fish from Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla and Chelsea.

Joel Pereira, on loan from Manchester United to Belenenses, started in goal for Portugal, but there’s every chance he wasn’t the reason for the scouting.

Portugal won the game 1-0 and highly rated youngsters Ruben Neves, Goncalo Guedes and Diogo Jota all appeared.

Jose Mourinho has inflated Manchester United’s scouting department since taking over, wanting to spot the best talent before anyone else.