Manchester United have sent scouts to monitor Valencia and Argentina defender Ezequiel Garay as Jose Mourinho continues to explore different options at the back, according to reports from Spain.
The 30-year-old, who briefly played under Mourinho at Real Madrid back in 2010, has been on United’s radar for a number of years – starting during the latter stages of Sir Alex Ferguson’s final season. He moved to Benfica from the Bernabeu and, as a Jorges Mendes client, was always linked with a move to Old Trafford. There were, however, no real indications of a move being on the cards, and he joined Zenit Saint Petersburg in 2014, making 75 appearances in total, before joining Valencia last summer.
Mourinho has already added to his defensive frontier this summer by signing Victor Lindelof from Benfica for a fee of £31m, but the Swede has struggled to adapt to life at Old Trafford. The Portuguese noted soon after a shaky performance against Real Madrid that he needed time to adapt to the vicissitudes of Premier League football. And he will have reservations over trusting the defensive pair of Phil Jones and Chris Smalling throughout the entire campaign. The duo impressed at times last season but have proven to be both injury-prone and susceptible to unconvincing performances. Doubt also looms over whether Marcos Rojo, following a nine month period on the sidelines, can recapture his form of last season once he returns to action in January.
And while the 54-year-old will not seek to make any further additions over the next week, he has sent top scout Javier Ribalta, chief Spanish scout Carlos Ruiz and other representatives to watch Garay in action during Valencia’s 1-0 win over Las Palmas on Friday night, perhaps in order to explore options ahead of the January transfer window in case his current defensive options appear to be too unreliable.
