A round-up of the latest Premier League transfer rumours - with news from Chelsea, Aston Villa, Manchester United, Nottingham Forest and more.
A long season has finally reached its conclusion and that means that it’s time for teams to shift focus to the summer transfer window – and to keep you up-to-date with all the latest gossip, we’re back with our regular morning round-up of some of the biggest Premier League transfer rumours you might have missed over the past 24 hours, starting with a story involving Chelsea and Aston Villa.
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According to Sport Witness, those are the two top flight teams “firmly in the race” to sign Bologna winger Jonathan Rowe, a former Norwich City and Marseille star who was a member of England’s victorious European Under-21 Championship squad last summer.
Galatasaray are also “on his trail,” as are other unnamed Premier League sides, with Rowe’s recent form apparently persuading several clubs that he’s worth a closer look. After a slightly slow start to life in Serie A, the 23-year-old finished with eight goals in 42 games and was especially impressive in the Europa League.
Bologna missed out on continental qualification this time around, meaning that the club may be compelled to sell a big-name player to make up for the financial shortfall – as such, Rowe appears to be available but it will take a bid of €40m (£35m) to get negotiations moving. There’s no suggestion that any offers have been made just yet.
The 3AM Verdict: Rowe hasn’t yet fully realised the potential we saw at Norwich since heading overseas but he found some fine form at the back end of the season and has an appealing combination of dribbling skill, technique and raw pace. As for whether this story will prove to be true - it seems to be based partly on Italian sources with a patchy track record, so there’s certainly room for some healthy scepticism, but the suggested price point is probably in the right ballpark.
Manchester United ‘keeping an eye’ on Nottingham Forest star
Over to a slightly surprising story which was picked up by a couple of different outlets on Sunday, including Caught Offside: They claim that Manchester United are “keeping an eye” on Nottingham Forest full-back Neco Williams, whose versatility apparently appeals to the Red Devils.
The 25-year-old Welshman is also said to have “attracted interest” from Aston Villa, Newcastle and Everton, although it’s said that any interested parties could “struggle” to get a deal over the line with Williams under contract until 2029 and Forest preferring to keep him around.
Their response to “discreet enquiries” – clearly not that discreet if half of the media has heard about them – has been to discuss the possibility of tying Williams down to a new contract. There’s no word on what kind of offer might twist their arm.
The 3AM Verdict: The tone of the reporting, both from Caught Offside and from other outlets, doesn’t make it sound like a deal that’s all that likely to happen. Manchester United would likely want Williams as a depth piece but wouldn’t likely be able to bag him for back-up money. Without any clear idea of the asking price, however, it’s very hard to assess the likelihood that those less-than-discreet enquiries turn into formal offers.
Premier League clubs keen on Crystal Palace star
We’ll round off today’s column with a story concerning Crystal Palace. According to French outlet RMC Sport, defender Maxence Lacroix may have played his last match for the club after “attracting the attention” of several top clubs in the Premier League and abroad.
There’s no word on which English teams are keen on the 26-year-old, but the report suggests that it’s “most likely” that he stays in the country – and it’s said that he wants to move to a team who can offer Champions League football. That narrows the list of prospective suitors down a bit.
Although they have Lacroix under contract for another three years, Palace apparently believe that keeping the Frenchman will be “extremely difficult” and it’s implied that they don’t believe there is any chance that he will be willing to extend his current deal. Apparently Palace are willing to come to the table for offers in excess of €40m (£35m).
The 3AM Verdict: Lacroix has been deeply impressive since coming to England so we wouldn’t be at all surprised if rival Premier League sides launched bids this summer, but it’s worth remembering that Palace refuse to let go of their best players easily – we wouldn’t be surprised if they held firm on a higher valuation than that. £35m sounds quite low to us given the length of his contract. We expect more to be required.
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