European scouts eyeing A-League

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Top European clubs will closely monitor A-League players to try and find cheaper ways of recruiting talent to Europe.

Three big European football clubs have their eyes open for any young Australasian talent they can pick up on the cheap.

Premier League side Blackburn, Scottish heavyweight Rangers and Greek side AEK Athens are all in Sydney this week for a festival of football.

Scottish legend Ally McCoist, the assistant coach at Rangers, says they're always scouting for new players.

But McCoist says it's hard to know if they can make the step up from the A-League though he says there's no doubt the standard of the competition is improving. McCoist says they can't pay big money for a player, so they look to youngsters coming through from around the world.