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Our round-up of the biggest new Premier League transfer rumours includes news from Manchester United, Arsenal, Nottingham Forest and more.
Welcome to Friday’s round-up of the biggest and boldest Premier League transfer rumours of the past 24 hours – and we’re going to kick-start today’s digest with a massive transfer story concerning the future of Bournemouth’s brilliant young defender Dean Huijsen.
The 19-year-old Spaniard has been a revelation since breaking into the first team at Dean Court over the past few months, and as well as being named as the best young player in the Premier League in our regular Wonderkid Power Rankings feature he’s also earning attention from some of the world’s biggest clubs – at least according to The Sun.
The redtop alleges that Huijsen has “caught the eye” of Manchester United, who are lining him up for a summer move – but they aren’t alone, with Real Madrid also interested in bringing the defender back to his homeland. Apparently Bournemouth are aware that interest in their young star is “mushrooming”, but may not be able to prevent him leaving – his contract has a £55m release clause in it which kicks in over the summer.
The 3AM Verdict: We’d like to start by apologising for using a report from The Sun, which we normally prefer to avoid – but the story is both big and original enough to merit mentioning, whatever you think of the source. In any case, Huijsen has been quite brilliant for Bournemouth and will surely make a big move eventually if his form persists. We’d probably advise him to go to Madrid instead of Manchester given the two teams’ recent track records, of course…
Arsenal in for £21m Italy midfielder
Let’s switch to a story from North London now – TeamTalk allege that Arsenal have rekindled old interest in Juventus midfielder and Italy international Manuel Locatelli in order to provide some fresh legs in their double pivot, with Mikel Arteta supposedly “personally keen” on the former Sassuolo star.
Apparently the Gunners are “ready” to make a move for the 27-year-old and could “easily” match Juve’s asking price – according to the article, the Old Lady only want about £21m for him. Further down the column, they also allege that Arsenal have their eyes on… Dean Huijsen, who seems to be exciting quite a lot of scouts right now.
The 3AM Verdict: Arsenal were supposed to be keen on Locatelli back when he first moved to Juventus, so this is a reboot of a pretty old story – which doesn’t make it less true. Jorginho and Thomas Partey are likely to leave in the summer, so they’ll certainly sign someone in this position, and if that price tag on Locatelli is accurate then it’s hard to argue that it wouldn’t be good value for money.
Tricky Trees in for Turkish star
We’ll round things off today with a story from Sport Witness, who claim that Premier League upstarts Nottingham Forest have thrown their hat into the ring for rising Turkish star Baris Alper Yilmaz, who has been linked with quite a few clubs but remains, for now, a Galatasaray player.
The 24-year-old, who can operate across the front three, fits the profile of the versatile forward Forest are keen on, and apparently they previously made a bid of up to €25m (£20.8m) for him, which clearly wasn’t deemed to be sufficient. It seems that Lazio and Napoli are keen too, and Yilmaz will be the subject of an “almighty summer battle”.
The 3AM Verdict: This feels like a report about a rehash of old rumours, if we’re honest, not that Forest’s interest isn’t genuine – it’s the first time we’ve seen reports of a concrete bid from them, too. We’ve also seen Aston Villa linked with him recently and expect a bit of a bunfight to develop.