Liverpool were on a European scouting mission last night, but where did they end up?

Portuguese newspaper Record have reported that Liverpool scouts were yesterday in attendance to watch Sporting Lisbon’s opening game of the season. Record revealed the Premier League club was among a number of English teams watching Sporting Lisbon's 5-1 win against Arouca. There haven’t been any confirmed reports on who Liverpool were monitoring but the likelihood is they went to watch Tiago Ilori who in June was linked with a move to Anfield. However the representatives from Liverpool will have gone home disappointed because Ilori didn’t participate in the match.

A Bola reported In June that Sporting Lisbon will be only willing to sell the young defender to Liverpool for a fee over €10m after it was revealed the Premier League club had put in an offer well below the asking price. Despite Sporting Lisbon’s financial issues the club are keen to keep hold of the 20 year old defender and have included him in their first team squad for the 2013/14 season. A Bola have claimed the club will only start to go in to negotiations with Liverpool if a bid over €10m is put in, but they hope they can get nearer to €15m for the player.

Liverpool will still be hoping to take advantage of Sporting Lisbon’s financial situation despite the club’s reluctance to sell Ilori. The Portuguese club made a loss of €29.7m in the period between 1st July 2012 to 31st March 2013 and all though this was a slight decrease on the previous financial year it still added to the already spiralling debt at the club. Sporting Lisbon’s issues has resulted in the club having to offload players in the current transfer window with Liverpool looking to be still monitoring the situation with Ilori.