It should come as no surprise that big clubs across Europe are keeping a very close eye on Portugal and its world-renowned academies. For it is there, at every age group, that the sport's next-best players are moulded into superstars.
In fact, it was an associate of Jorge Mendes that revealed agents would jokingly say 'here comes the bank' when elite teams jetted across. A talent spotter even went as far as to jibe it feels 'like there are more scouts than players in Portugal'.
That, of course, is not the case - but the country's clubs are ripe for picking because of their brilliantly run youth systems, and those in the Premier League have not been afraid to exploit these over the years by splashing obscene amounts of cash.