Newcastle United start transfer efforts early – Magpies official sent on a mission

With Newcastle United often being linked to players from the Portuguese league, we’ve seen the Magpies reportedly chasing a few targets this year.

Prior to the summer window, the club were said to be interested in Benfica’s Nuno Tavares and Rafa Silva, and then got involved in the battle for Sporting’s Matheus Nunes.

Now it seems there’s also someone they like at a third big club from Portugal, because according to the local media, Newcastle scouted a Porto game on Saturday night.

It’s newspaper O Jogo who claims the Magpies had an official at the Dragons’ 1-0 win over Paços Ferreira, even though they don’t say who the emissaries were there to watch.

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It’s been a long time since Newcastle were last linked to a Porto player, as their former targets Moussa Marega and Yacine Brahimi have both left the club already, meaning there must be other talents drawing their attention.

O Jogo’s match report highlights the performances from a few Dragons’ talents.

Those are left-back Wendell, midfielders Mateus Uribe and Vitinha, and strikers Mehdi Taremi and Luis Diaz.

Meanwhile, the performances from Paços Ferreira goalkeeper André Ferreira and striker Nuno Santos deserve a mention as well.

Now, however, we must wait and see whether any of those players were real targets for Newcastle, or if the scout was just there on the off chance someone caught his eye.