Manchester United ‘make enquiry’ about highly-rated Bristol City starlet

Premier League giants Manchester United are to reportedly make an enquiry to Bristol City about midfielder Alex Scott.

Scott is entering his second full season with City and started in the Robins’ opening game of the season in the defeat to Hull City.

In his first full season as a City player, he made 38 appearances, scoring four goals and earning two assists as he alternated between central midfield and as a makeshift right wing-back.

The 18-year-old has a three-year contract with the club and any interested party would have to pay a sizable fee to prize him away from Ashton Gate.

But one of the biggest clubs in world football have reportedly taken a liking to one of the Championship’s best young talents.

The United Stand, which boasts 1.3m Twitter followers are reporting that the Red Devils have made an enquiry to the West Country club about potentially signing him.

They are ‘keen’ to bring him to Old Trafford and to keep City on side in any deal that would take place this window it would include a loan back for the season ‘in order to attain more first- team experience’

Should United’s interest be genuine then they would join Leeds United and Tottenham Hotspur as the other two Premier League clubs interested.

Neither Leeds or Tottenham have shown anything more other than ‘reported’ interest but Spurs have been keeping tabs on him.

Scott’s stock has never been higher having won the U19 UEFA European Championship in an England team that was made up of mainly players from Premier League academies.

He first had to settle for a place on the bench but later forced his way into the side and scored a header - for the first time in his career - against Italy to help them reach the final.

His exploits with the young Three Lions meant a later return to pre-season and did not play until the final week of pre-season, featuring against Exeter City, before starting against Bournemouth.

In what will be just his second campaign of professional football at senior level, manager Nigel Pearson back in June called for caution about expectations of the player.

He said: “I think it’s also important to try and manage people’s expectations on young players. My expectation of younger players is that second seasons can be more difficult sometimes.

“I don’t want people all of a sudden to expect him to be better and better all the time, but there is a possibility he will be better all the time, which is why people are talking about him.”

And whilst things may have changed since he spoke at the start of pre-season, there has been a desire to keep hold of the club’s best players.

Scott’s teammate Antoine Semenyo - who turned out for Ghana this summer - has been subject of interest but no offer has met the valuation of the club and they aren’t looking to sell now.

“We have players who other people would quite like. But their value to us is what they do out there, on that green rectangle, not on how much somebody is going to pay.

"That’s a shift in where we are. We want to retain our best players, we want to develop the team so that when we are successful and get into the Premier League, we’re not changing it all again.”