A few months ago, several reports from the Portuguese and English press claimed that scout José Boto could join Manchester United.
Sorting out his departure from Benfica, the official was said to be desired by José Mourinho, who continues expanding his scouting network.
But it turned out that Boto ended up signing for Shakhtar Donetsk, where he’s also working with a Portuguese manager, this time Paulo Fonseca.
Boto has given an interview to Tribuna Expresso this week, and explained the entire situation, saying he was never about to join Manchester United.
“No, no one talked to me about it. Perhaps it’s also important to clarify this, because in Benfica’s last general assembly, the president was confronted about my departure: the decision to leave was mine and was presented to the president when it was already taken.”
The interview is pretty long, and really worth to check out for those who are interested in the job of a scout. Another quote where Boto refers to Manchester United is when he speaks about the number of scouts that clubs have.
“In these eleven years that I spent in Benfica I was fortunate to get in touch with a lot of people and get to know the scouting offices of practically every club. It’s obvious that the clubs in Portugal, not only Benfica, in terms of resources, if we compare with the English… Eh, if I tell you that Manchester has 40 plus scouts and Benfica has four or five, I think you can see that there is a very big difference.”
“But if you organise a scouting department well, you don’t have to have a lot of people, you don’t even need to have astronomical spending, as people might think you need. It doesn’t really seem like spending is an excuse not to have a scouting office because it will help you save money.
“The difference between being right or wrong about a player is this. Or you have a deeper knowledge about the player. Of course I have idea how they do scouting at some clubs: it’s an agent who speaks of a player, gives him a sight and that’s it. This is not the best way to get to know a player.”
