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Football

18th Aug 2017

Manchester United send scout to see £18m valued striker after electric start to season

One of three young stars they are watching closely

Patrick McCarry

The young striker has got off to a flyer.

Three games into the Belgian 2017/18 season and Emmanuel Bonaventure Dennis has scored four times for Club Brugge. He found the net once in two Champions League qualifiers. All told, that’s five games and five goals.

Add to that his six goals in 21 league outings for previous club Zorya Luhansk last season and here is a young player proving he can mix it with the big lads.

Dennis’ electric start to the season has seen Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho send a couple of scouts out to watch him closely. The 19-year-old from Nigeria has, according to reports in Belgium, already attracted scouts from some of Europe’s other top sides and has had a price-tag of £18m placed on him.

Pretty steep for a teenage striker just making his way in the game but prices have escalated wildly in the past couple of seasons.

Dennis is not the only youngster United are paying close attention to this summer. Manchester Evening News named two more attacking talents the United scouts have watched in action.

Leon Bailey [Bayer Leverkusen]

United watched the 20-year-old from Jamaica back in 2016 but did not intervene when Leverkusen stepped in with an £18m [€20m] bid to tempt him away from Genk.

Appeared 10 times for the Germans last season [all as a sub] but has yet to score for them in a competitive match.

Kasper Dolberg [Ajax]

A year younger than Bailey but a lot further down the road in terms of a senior career. Had 50 senior team appearances last season with Ajax and scored 23 goals.

Already has three caps for Denmark, scoring his first goal for them against Kazakhstan in June of this year.