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Premier League transfer news latest including reports involving Manchester United, Tottenham, Arsenal, Chelsea and more
The Premier League is back this weekend, with a mouth-watering buffet of piping hot Barclays to feast upon. Why not load up your plate with a hearty slab of Sunderland vs Tottenham, marry it up with a rich side of Chelsea vs Manchester City and then, to top it all off, add a little soupçon of Nottingham Forest vs Aston Villa. If you wish to give the rather gelatinous looking puck of Burnley vs Brighton a swerve, we do not blame you at all.
Away from on the field proceedings in England’s top tier, thoughts are starting to turn to the upcoming transfer window, which will crash wide open in a mere sixty six days, allowing the Premier League’s elite to wheel and deal all summer long.
With that in mind, we begin our daily round-up with a 20-year-old midfielder by the name of Kees Smit, who, if Caught Offside are to be believed, has caught the eye of no fewer than seven clubs across Europe. He’s appeared in our gossip column before, as it happens, back in November 2025. This time around it’s all the usual suspects mentioned, by which we mean (deep breath) Manchester United, Chelsea, Newcastle, Arsenal, Liverpool, Barcelona and Real Madrid.
They’re all said to be “monitoring his development closely” and his club, AZ Alkmaar, are said to be willing to entertain offers in the region of £44m. That would make him the club’s record sale by far, shooting past the likes of Tijjani Reijnders and Alireza Jahanbakhsh to the top of the charts.
Smit has been lauded for his killer through-balls and ability to “unlock defences” which are the kind of phrases that get Directors of Football, Sporting Directors, Esteemed Transfer Gurus, or whatever those blokes swanning around in immaculately tailored suits call themselves these days, scrambling for their chequebooks.
The 3AM Verdict: The report names its source - a refreshing occurrence in the rumour mill game - as those “close to the agents industry” which does give off a bit of an “agent putting their client’s name out there” kind of vibe. Nonetheless, Smit is clearly a technically gifted young player - one who’s already broken into the Netherlands’ national team and has been hyped as, according to this report, the ‘new Kevin de Bruyne’.
Tottenham ‘sanction’ spend on defence - Scalvini is a top target
When I’ve got something truly horrible lurking in the near future - be it the task of decluttering the outdoor death trap I whimsically refer to as ‘the garage’, or perhaps defrosting the freezer and disposing of the haunted leftovers of years gone by, which can now only be identified by the ciphers hastily scrawled on their storage tubs before they were condemned an eternity of sub-zero darkness - I often like to distract myself with a spot of blissful daydreaming.
It seems that Spurs have taken the same approach, with a number of top quality players seemingly emerging on their transfer radar in recent weeks, amid the very real threat of playing Championship football next season. Every story is, of course, heavily and indeed relentlessly caveated with the phrase “if they don’t get relegated”. The latest report from Team Talk asserts that the top brass at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium have seen enough of the side’s ropy defending, and will look to revamp the back-line this summer... sing it together, now: if they don’t get relegated.
Atalanta’s Giorgio Scalvini has been named as Spurs’ desired candidate to sort things out at the back, and the report goes on to claim that he’s a player who they’re “actively doing extensive background work on”. Newcastle United are also named as an interested party, and reference is made to the 22-year-old’s rather concerning recent injury record - something which could well ring alarm bells at Tottenham, given all their issues with player fitness in recent seasons.
The 3AM Verdict: Tottenham can ‘sanction’ as many transfers as they want right now: the reality is that if they get relegated this season, they’ll be lucky to get a couple of plodding journeymen from Belarus and aFootball Manager wonderkid who’s yet to play a professional game. If they stay up, Scalvini would be a lovely bit of business, and undoubtedly bring some quality to Tottenham’s otherwise utterly shambolic defence.
You would think, however, that if he is on the move, he’d be keen to join a club who can offer him European football - something which looks a long way away for Roberto De Zerbi’s newly inherited Spurs side at this moment in time.
Arsenal could hijack Leeds United transfer target
We round things off with a tale of transfer skulduggery, as Sport Witness relay reports from French outlet Media Foot which suggest Arsenal could muscle their way past Leeds United to complete the signing of Rennes midfielder Djaoui Cissé - a player who is said to have been the subject of the Whites’ admiration for quite some time.
Indeed, the report suggests that Leeds already made contact with the Ligue 1 club with a view to securing a summer move some two months ago. Details of Arsenal’s interest are scant, but it is suggested that their manager, Mikel Arteta, is a fan of the 22-year-old and sees him as a good fit for his side. Bundesliga duo Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayer Leverkusen are also credited with an interest in the player, who has made eight appearances for France’s U21 side, scoring four goals.
The 3AM Verdict: Let’s be honest: if you’re given the option of Arsenal, potentially the Premier League champions by the summer, or Leeds United, you’re going to join Arsenal. That said, the Gunners have enough central midfielders to sink a ship, and he’d be hard pressed to jostle his way into the engine room with the likes of Declan Rice and thecriminally underrated gem Martín Zubimendistanding in his way.
Cissé could well opt for a switch to the Bundesliga, or indeed stay with his current club, given that their stance on a summer sale is unknown. He’d fit nicely in Leeds’ midfield, it must be said, and give them some real dynamism going forward. One to watch, for sure.
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