Newcastle United were one of the 22 clubs who had officials travelling to Portugal on Wednesday night so they could watch Porto’s Champions League clash against Liverpool.
This is not the first time the Magpies are represented in the North of Portugal, as they have already watched the Dragons in Cup games this season, so there’s definitely some interest for the club over there.
But although newspaper A Bola reports the scouts’ presence, there’s no information on who the officials were watching.
Newcastle have been linked to two Porto players, Iker Casillas and Vincent Aboubakar, but neither of them featured in yesterday’s match. One due to the manager’s decision, and the other because of an injury.
With a 5-0 defeat, it’s hard to think of a Porto player who could impress the Newcastle scouts. There was only one man who got a non-negative rating from the local press, and that was Tiquinho Soares, who did a decent job trying to keep the ball in attack.
Maybe another visit to the Estádio do Dragão would give the Magpies another impression from Porto’s team, especially because they are currently leading the local league and are definitely not that bad.
Only from the Premier League, Manchester United, Manchester City, Everton, Leicester City, Watford, Chelsea and Arsenal all sent scouts to this game as well.