Sir Alex Ferguson is strongly considering adding to the
Portuguese contingent at Manchester United by making a
transfer-window move for Miguel Veloso, Sporting Lisbon's
impressive young midfielder. Ferguson, taking the advice of his
assistant Carlos Queiroz, has identified Veloso as the next
potential star to emerge from the Sporting youth ranks that also
produced Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani. Veloso, who has broken into
the Portuguese national side at 21, has been the outstanding player
in La Liga this season and it is a measure of United's interest
that Ferguson's brother Martin, the club's chief scout, has been a
virtual ever-present recently at the Estadio Jose Alvalade XI.
United have been represented at six of Veloso's last seven
matches.
Veloso is predominantly a holding midfielder, a position in which
Ferguson is hardly short of players. Owen Hargreaves is a
specialist, Michael Carrick and Anderson are both accomplished
players in the position and Paul Scholes also has a deep-lying
role. Ferguson has been slowly modifying his line-up to a 4-2-3-1
system and he has received glowing reports about Veloso's ability
to break up opposition attacks. One scouting report from last
season details how Veloso outshone Patrick Vieira when Sporting
beat Internazionale in the Champions League.
His form has been so impressive that a clutch of other leading
clubs, most notably Real Madrid, have also been monitoring him
closely but United have a clear advantage because of their
long-standing association with Sporting and it is thought there
have already been informal talks. The official line from Sporting
is that they do not want to sell their best players but the club
are famous for developing outstanding youngsters and then selling
them on and they have informed Veloso's representatives that they
will not try to block a move if the money is right.
It would take a substantial bid to prise him away from Lisbon -
potentially in the region of £10m - because Veloso agreed a
six-year contract in January and the price could rise if, as
expected, Madrid confirm their interest in the new year.
Veloso, a member of Benfica's youth academy before defecting to
Sporting at the age of 14, comes from a famous sporting family -
his father Antonio is a former Portugal international defender. He
broke into the Sporting team last season and can also play at
centre-half as well as left-back, something that will undoubtedly
appeal to Ferguson now that Gabriel Heinze has left United.
With Mikaël Silvestre out with a serious knee injury, Patrice Evra
is the solitary left-footed defender in Ferguson's squad. John
O'Shea provides back-up but Ferguson is aware that this is the one
part of his team where he is short of players. Veloso's performance
will, therefore, be of acute interest when Sporting visit Old
Trafford next Tuesday in the Champions League.
