Liverpool & Chelsea chasing £50m Premier League star as Spurs aim to strike summer key summer dealplaceholder image
Liverpool & Chelsea chasing £50m Premier League star as Spurs aim to strike summer key summer deal | Getty Images
Rounding up the latest Premier League transfer rumours - with news from Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs, Manchester City and more.
The January transfer window has closed – in Britain, at least – and the fax machines have fallen silent once more. But that doesn’t mean that rumour mill has stopped churning out fresh stories, so we’re still plugging away with our regular round-ups of the biggest and wildest new Premier League transfer rumours.
Today we kick things off with a story from Football Insider, who reckon that Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City are all showing “extensive interest” in a summer deal for Sunderland goalkeeper Robin Roefs, who has impressed since signing for the Black Cats six months ago as part of their remarkably successful summer window.
Sunderland are said to be “expecting huge offers” when the next transfer window opens, and believe that there is a “serious risk” that they will lose the 23-year-old shot stopper at the end of the season.
Bids are expected to be in the region of “£50m-plus” and such bids would be “hard to resist,” perhaps both for the club and for Roefs himself. There’s no suggestion that any kind of negotiations have taken place or are likely to do so soon, of course.
The 3AM Verdict: Roefs’ fine form is likely to lead to persistent speculation about his future but that’s exactly what this is right now – pure speculation. No evidence of an inside track is presented in this article and while we wouldn’t be at all surprised if a side like Chelsea did make a move for Roefs in six months’ time or so, we doubt that any such decision has been made just yet.
Spurs hoping for ‘better deal’ as they chase French international star
According to TeamTalk, Tottenham Hotspur backed out of a January deal for AS Monaco and France attacking midfielder Maghnes Akliouche – because they believe they can “striker a better deal” for the 23-year-old come the summer.
Apparently a deal for Akliouche had been “months in the making” and would have cost the club “over £50m” but although the player appeared to be satisfied with the likely personal terms, Spurs “opted to hold back” in the belief that they could get a better price in a few months’ time.
The problem with Spurs’ decision, the article suggests, is that it may prove “risky” with other, unnamed clubs also monitoring the Monaco man. The other problem is that the lack of additions appears to have upset players like Cristian Romero – with good reason, according to our columnist.
The 3AM Verdict: Rumours suggesting that Spurs were interested in Akliouche were relatively common and persistent during the window, but we never heard any suggestions that there were advanced negotiations – not that that invalidates the story. We’ll find out just how keen Spurs really are once summer comes around, it would seem.
Chelsea set to demand £86m deal as transfer speculation grows
Let’s wrap today’s post-window digest off with a story from Caught Offside, who claim that Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernández is set to be at the centre of one of the summer’s biggest bidding wars with “interest growing across Europe’s elite.”
Real Madrid are mentioned as being potential suitors for the Argentine midfielder and they are said to be “monitoring Fernández closely,” with the 25-year-old apparently seen as a potential replacement for Jude Bellingham if he leaves at the end of the season.
Real apparently see there as being “no urgency” to make a bid, not that they have much of a choice given that the transfer window is closed anyway, and a bid would depend on outgoings, Bellingham or otherwise. Quite which other members of ‘Europe’s elite’ are interested, this article declines to say.
The 3AM Verdict: This is a report which starts by hyping up a gigantic bidding war and then proceeds to present evidence that it won’t happen, not least in the failure to identify any bidders apart from a side who will only sell if Bellingham leaves – and there are few indications that will happen, even if he is having a less successful season. Real have been linked with Fernández before, but this does nothing to add to the rumour or to strengthen the case for its likelihood of happening.
Continue Reading