Bid made: Newcastle now send official to watch £37.4m 'boss' ahead of potential summer move

Newcastle United have reportedly now sent a scout to watch centre-back Goncalo Inacio, and even made a bid for the player in January, according to reports in Portugal.

Inacio is having another solid season in Lisbon with Sporting CP, having won the title last campaign.

His performances attracted praise from Portuguese media, and he was even nicknamed the ‘Portuguese boss‘ despite only being 19 years of age at the time.

Now 20, Inacio has also been a mainstay in the side this term, as he helped them out of the group stages of the UEFA Champions League and into second place in the Primeira Liga table, where they will be hoping to catch FC Porto in first.

As per A Bola (via Sport Witness), the St. James’ Park faithful sent an official to watch Inacio play in a 3-1 win at Tondela on Saturday, as he found the back of the net for his fifth goal of the season.

They apparently had a €30m (£24.9m) bid rejected by Sporting in the January transfer window, but the player does have a €45m (£37.4m) release clause.

The news outlet hints that the North East club must be ‘really interested’ in Inacio, as usually teams from the Premier League send their scouts over to Lisbon or Porto to watch players from the top flight, but the Tyneside outfit sent theirs to Tondela.

The fact that Inacio has a release clause should encourage the Magpies to get a deal done.

Having had a £33m bid rejected by Lille for Sven Botman, added to talk of an increased £67m release clause for January target Diego Carlos, £37.4m may be the sweet spot for the Toon to sign a central defender in Inacio who may well have a higher ceiling at just 20 years of age.

Nonetheless, Sporting have a history of selling players to Premier League clubs for big money, and so this is