Chelsea lead Liverpool in ‘chase’ for £52m star as Arsenal target lightning-fast wingerplaceholder image
Chelsea lead Liverpool in ‘chase’ for £52m star as Arsenal target lightning-fast winger | Getty Images
Analysing the latest Premier League transfer rumours - including news from Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Wolves and more.
It’s once again time for 3 Added Minutes to round up and review some of the biggest and boldest new Premier League transfer rumours that have come flying out of the rumour mill over the past 24 hours – and today, we’ll kick off with a story for Chelsea and Liverpool supporters.
According to Caught Offside, Chelsea are “currently leading the winter chase” to sign RB Leipzig centre-back Castello Lukeba, with Liverpool among a number of major European teams also “keeping close tabs” on the 22-year-old’s situation.
Manchester United and Newcastle are mentioned as well but given Liverpool’s need for a centre-back it’s implied that they may be the main competition for Chelsea, who could “push hard” to get a deal for the defender over the line in January.
Lukeba has a massive €90m (£79m) release clause in his Leipzig contract, but the Bundesliga side may be “open to letting him go” for a fee of around €60m (£52m) this winter should negotiations commence. There’s no indication that they have as yet.
The 3AM Verdict: Given Chelsea and Liverpool’s needs, finances and – in Chelsea’s case –preference for younger players, this is among Caught Offside’s more plausible stories, and there’s certainly nothing here which sounds unrealistic to us. As for whether Lukeba really is on either team’s radar, we’ll find out next month, but the price sounds relatively reasonable for a January deal…
Arsenal after ‘Bundesliga’s fastest ever player’
Over to a story from TeamTalk now, which alleges that Arsenal “have entered the chase” for Eintracht Frankfurt winger Jean-Mattéo Bahoya, reportedly “the Bundesliga’s fastest ever player” who only signed for his current club this summer.
The Gunners have supposedly sent scouts to watch him on six occasions already, and Tottenham Hotspur, PSG and Bayern Munich have all “made formal enquiries” in the past few weeks – something that Arsenal don’t seem to have done as yet, if the report is on the money.
The bad news is that Frankfurt “have no intention of selling” the 20-year-old Bahoya this winter and would demand at least €60m (£52m) to start a conversation – a price clearly designed to tell people to go away, but which has “not deterred” his many suitors.
The 3AM Verdict: There may well be a lot of interest here but there’s no chance that Arsenal are paying that sort of money for Bahoya in January. We suspect that this is one of those names that keeps cropping up but that he won’t actually move to a bigger team for a while yet. Clubs like to be sure before spending that kind of cash.
Wolves pursuit ‘heating up’ ahead of January transfer window
Let’s wind up for today with a story for the Wolves fans reading – Sport Witness have corralled sources from the Italian media which suggest that the Black Country outfit are “heating up” their long-standing interest in Lazio goalkeeper Christos Mandas, with the Serie A side “desperate” to sell him.
Wolves have tried to buy Mandas before and here it’s claimed that they have been “monitoring the 24-year-old… for over a year.” Lazio initially wanted to keep Mandas around, but the club’s growing financial issues mean that they urgently need to offload some players to make ends meet.
Apparently the asking price is now just €12m (£10.5m), considerably lower than previously reported figures, and Wolves “have all the power” in negotiations due to Lazio’s economic situation. Fiorentina are among other teams interested in the Greek shot stopper, but they have only offered a loan deal so far, which doesn’t suit Lazio.
The 3AM Verdict: Wolves have been chasing Mandas for what feels like an eternity and now they might finally get their man this January – Lazio’s financial problems are very real and signing any of their stars is now likely to be rather easier than it had been before. We wouldn’t be remotely surprised if this one gets over the line next month.
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