Liverpool & Chelsea target rising Premier League star with Tottenham ‘extremely keen’ on £52m midfielderplaceholder image
Liverpool & Chelsea target rising Premier League star with Tottenham ‘extremely keen’ on £52m midfielder | Getty Images
A round-up of the biggest new Premier League transfer rumours - with news from Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs, Fulham and more.
Given how quiet the January transfer window was in the end, it’s perhaps slightly surprising that the gossip columns are so full of new stories right now – but there is indeed plenty of speculation doing the rounds, and we’re here with our regular morning round-up of the biggest new Premier League transfer rumours you might have missed to help make sense of it all.
Today, we’re kicking things off with a story from Caught Offside which suggests that Liverpool are “keeping a close eye” on rising Bournemouth star Eli Junior Kroupi – with the 19-year-old said to be “emerging as a potential summer target” for Arne Slot’s side.
Getting hold of the Frenchman, who has eight Premier League goals so far this season, “will not be easy,” it’s said. Bournemouth apparently believe that Kroupi could demand a fee of around £70-80m, with that estimation buoyed by growing interest from a number of elite sides.
Chelsea, Real Madrid and PSG are said to be “monitoring his progress closely” with Chelsea and Real supposedly sending scouts to the Vitality Stadium on a regular basis this season. There’s no suggestion that any approaches have yet been made for Kroupi, who joined Bournemouth a year ago for a fee of around £10m.
The 3AM Verdict: Kroupi’s star is certainly in the ascendancy – he’s in our currentWonderkid Power Rankings line-up, for starters – but £80m still feels like an awful lot and we doubt that any of the sides mentioned would fork out quite that much as it stands. Still, we’re not surprised that there are big sides doing their due diligence. Whether that results in any such towering bids remains to be seen.
Tottenham Hotspur ‘adore’ £52m Bundesliga man
Let’s head to North London, now, for a story from TeamTalk (among several other outlets) which suggests that Tottenham Hotspur are “moving” to sign Germany international midfielder Felix Nmecha.
Apparently the 25-year-old is “adored” by Spurs’ transfer teams and the club are said to be “extremely keen” to sign the Borussia Dortmund man this summer as they rebuild their midfield – and while Dortmund apparently don’t want to sell Nmecha, they are “bracing themselves” for bids.
A story from German tabloid Bild, which seems to be the starting point for the flurry of stories about Spurs’ interest, apparently claims that Nmecha would “probably leave” for a fee of €60m (£52m). There’s no word on whether Spurs are willing to pay that much as yet, or on the midfielder’s own view of the situation.
The 3AM Verdict: While this story is doing the rounds at speed, the primary source – Bild – have a mixed history when it comes to accuracy with their transfer stories, so it’s worth maintaining some gentle scepticism for now. Still, Nmecha does fit the box-to-box profile Spurs seem to prize.
Fulham hope to replace veteran striker with long-standing target
We’ll stick in the capital for our final story of today’s digest, with a story from Sport Witness suggesting that Fulham “will let Raúl Jiménez leave” this summer at the end of his contract – and bid for Ricardo Pepi yet again in order to replace him.
The Cottagers tried and failed to sign Pepi in both of the last two transfer windows but they are said to be “so keen” on the American that past failures won’t dissuade them from having another go. Fulham were prepared to pay €35m (£30.5m) for the American forward in January despite the fact that he had broken his arm, and clearly aren’t going to let the collapse of that deal get in their way.
The 35-year-old Jiménez, meanwhile, has been linked with a return to Mexico, with at least one media source in the striker’s homeland suggesting that Fulham have already decided that his time in West London has come to an end.
The 3AM Verdict: Fulham have tried so hard to sign Pepi in the past that we firmly expect them to give it one last go this summer, and everything here seems plausible enough to us. Whether they actually get their man this time, of course… We’ll find out in six months’ time.
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