A round-up of the biggest new Premier League transfer rumours - with news from Arsenal, Newcastle, Manchester City and more.
The weekend is finally here, but the rumour mill doesn’t understand the concept of a holiday – so we’re back the same as every other morning to keep you informed of the biggest new Premier League transfer stories that we’ve seen over the past 24 hours.
Today, we’re starting in the capital with a story for Arsenal fans. TeamTalk reckon that Mikel Arteta and his transfer team have whittled their options for a new striker down to just two players – Sporting’s Viktor Gyökeres and RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Šeško.
Apparently the Gunners decided against pursuing a move for Newcastle’s Alexander Isak after learning that the Magpies would want at least £150m, but have done “a lot of work” on Slovenian striker Šeško and view it as a “straight choice” between him and free-scoring Swede Gyökeres.
No new word on the finances involved in a deal for either player, or whether the cost will impact Arsenal’s final decision, but it looks as though alternatives such as Matheus Cunha and Hugo Ekitike have been placed firmly on the back-burner.
The 3AM Verdict: This is confirmation of what we’ve suspected for a while, with Gyökeres in particular seeming to be Arsenal’s number one target as it stands. With so many big sides on the hunt for a striker this summer, however, everything could change very quickly.
Newcastle & Nottingham Forest still have a shot at £25m star
For a while now, both Newcastle and Nottingham Forest have been linked with a bid for Marseille winger Luis Henrique – but it had looked set in stone that the Brazilian would join Inter Milan instead. Not any more, according to reports picked up on by Sport Witness.
A deal with the Serie A side “hasn’t been sealed” and the two Premier League clubs have “knocked on the door” while negotiations continue – with Bayern Munich also alleged to be keen to strike a bargain.
Apparently, the player’s preference is to go to Inter (despite their horrible new home kit) but the Nerazzurri are struggling to agree a deal with Marseille even though the French side have dropped their asking price to €30m (£25m). Newcastle and Forest could pounce at that price, with Inter said to be offering just €22m plus add-ons.
The 3AM Verdict: This story has dropped off a bit of late as it was widely assumed that Henrique had made up his mind to go to Inter, with personal terms allegedly agreed. We suspect that a deal will get made in the end, but it seems that there’s still Premier League interest if negotiations go south.
Manchester City find Florian Wirtz alternative
After an immense amount of fuss over his registration when he signed for the Catalan superclub, Olmo has struggled to nail down a regular starting spot under Hansi Flick and the Mail reckon that he could be up for sale, with City interested as part of a “serious overhaul”.
Apparently, Olmo has been “earmarked” as City’s Plan B should they fail to land Wirtz, who still looks likely to go to Bayern Munich. Liverpool are having a crack at landing him in a deal that could be worth more than £100m, as well.
The 3AM Verdict: The primary source for this story seems to be Sky Sports Germany reporter Florian Plettenberg, who is good on his own patch but has a mixed track record on rumours outside of the Bundesliga. This is the first time we’ve heard this link, there are few other indications that Olmo could be sold and we’ve seen far more stories suggesting Morgan Gibbs-White would be the next port of call if City can’t land Wirtz, so for now we’re sceptical that this deal gets over the line.
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