Manchester United had a top-line scout at Sevilla's clash with Espanyol last week.

The Mail on Sunday says with Dani Jarque and Carlos Kameni plus Luis Garcia catching the eye for Espanyol and a veritable feast of top-quality players in the red and white of Sevilla-Christian Poulsen, Ivica Dragutinovic, Luis Fabiano, Feydou Keita, Diego Capel to name only a few - the trip was never going to be a waste of time.

But the fact that United's Porto based man made the trip to rendezvous with his colleagues suggests that it was former Porto striker and Brazil centre-forward Luis Fabiano, of Sevilla, who was the main target.

Fabiano admits his registration is "a mess".

"It's a mess," Fabiano confirms. "Sevilla only own 33 per cent of my registration, with the rest being in the hands of a company.

"Life here is brilliant. I like the people, the language, the weather and the football. But if Sevilla think they are going to keep me in the summer, then I'd like to see them making more of an effort to do it.

"The contract is quite specific - 711m (£8m) buys the part of my registration which Sevilla holds, so if someone comes in with that money in the summer then there will be nothing Sevilla can do.

"It's down to them to renegotiate my deal before then-all I'll do for the meantime is try to keep on scoring goals and take us to the Champions League Final."