It was an ex-mexico star that tipped off Man Utd on Chicharito. We have to thank him!!

Manchester United fans have former Mexican international Marco Garces to thank for tipping the club off about Javier Hernandez.

Garces told United chief scout Jim Lawlor about this promising young striker in September 2009 after the pair struck up a friendship during the four years he spent at Liverpool John Moores University studying for a sports science degree.

Lawlor sent one of his scouts to Mexico in December to assess Hernandez before jetting out to spend three weeks watching him in February and March.

Lawlor's in-depth report sold Hernandez to Sir Alex Ferguson and the United boss moved quickly to seal his secret £7million switch from Guadalajara when it became clear the attacker would be in Mexico's World Cup squad.

Hernandez is the first Mexican to play for United and Lawlor claims he has a network of contacts and scouts all over the world.

"We have our greatest number of scouts in the UK," he told the Mirror. "But players can come from anywhere in the world. You only have to look at some of the top players in world football and they come from small countries in Africa and other places. So we keep our scouts active everywhere and keep an open mind.

"We have one of the bigger scouting networks because we look to recruit the very best players in the world and you can't do that by scouting in just one country. We have an extensive network, which is growing all the time, and hopefully it will help us acquire the very best players."