Three former Norwich City scouts combined to sign Middlesbrough midfielder Aidan Morris after the American was tracked by the Canaries.

Morris joined Boro this summer for a reported fee of around £3million, signing a four-year deal after impressing in the MLS with Columbus Crew.

That deal was masterminded by the Teessiders' head of football Kieran Scott, who previously led the recruitment department at Carrow Road.

He's now revealed that those links to Norfolk aided the process of identifying Morris as a target, having brought ex-City scouts Tom Reeves and Chris Jones to the Riverside.

Both Reeves and Jones had been scouting the midfielder, the former while at Norwich and the latter in his more recent role with Crystal Palace.

“He first came onto my radar when Chris joined the club about two years ago now," Scott told Teesside Live of Morris. "He had been tracking him for Palace.

“When we brought in Tom Reeves, he’d also been tracking him as part of his remit doing the MLS for Norwich. It sort of all tied together. I took a look and it was unanimous: ‘Yeah, we really like him.'

“We’re going back to before (Boro head coach) Michael [Carrick] even joined the club. There’ll be some players the lads watch for a little time, but he was one where Chris was just like straight away: ‘Kieran, have a look.'”

The 41-year-old left Norwich after four years at the club, accepting an offer to head up Middlesbrough's sporting department when he was chief scout under Stuart Webber.

He subsequently appointed Carrick to replaces Chris Wilder and has overseen three Championship campaigns, his current club narrowly missing out on the play-offs twice and losing in the semi-finals once.

During his time with City he played a key role in recruiting Emi Buendia, Teemu Pukki and a host of others vital to Daniel Farke's two promotions to the Premier League. Reeves and Jones were both part of his team at the time.