The latest Premier League transfer rumours - with news from Liverpool, Everton, Aston Villa, Bournemouth and more.
It’s once again time for 3 Added Minutes’ regular morning round-up and review of the biggest new Premier League transfer rumours – and today, we kick things off with a story involving Liverpool, Everton, and frankly quite a few other teams…
The Merseyside rivals are among the teams who could make a late charge to sign Juventus midfielder Douglas Luiz, according to Caught Offside, with the former Aston Villa man available for €40m (£35m) after a pretty poor season in Turin.
Most reports suggest that Luiz is close to a move to Nottingham Forest and this story admits that they are “leading the race” as it stands, but suggests that Liverpool, Everton, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United and Leeds United are all “lurking in the background”.
There is no suggestion, however, that any of those sides have made a formal offer for Luiz despite “showing interest” at the eleventh hour. Nothing, apparently, has yet been agreed between Luiz and Forest, so there could be a window for a rival team to force their way into the bidding.
The 3AM Verdict: Most reporters covering the story seem fairly convinced that Luiz will be playing at the City Ground next season andSport Witness’ latest story says a deal is “very close”, but perhaps there’s still time for another Premier League team to make a move. Liverpool are the only team here we’ve never seen linked with him before, and we’re not sure what the basis for that part of the story is. We suspect that bit doesn’t prove to be true, but the other teams have at least thought about a bid.
Aston Villa to meet €50m asking price for Barcelona star
Over to Football365 now, who suggest that Aston Villa have “decided to raise their offer” for Barcelona forward Ferran Torres to meet the Catalan club’s asking price of €50m (£43.5m).
The former Manchester City man has been “on Unai Emery’s radar for several months”, it’s suggested, but they are now “willing” to pay Barcelona’s valuation despite suggestions that they may need to sell players before they can start buying again.
Despite having supposedly given Villa a specific price tag, Barcelona are also said to be having “doubts” about whether to let Torres leave following a strong pre-season, but Barcelona can always have their arm twisted these days.
The 3AM Verdict: A frustrating thing about this report is that it seems to be based partly on a third-party story, but they don’t link to it or cite the author – which makes it hard to know how reliable the origin of this claim is. We have some mild doubts about it, partly centred on Villa’s finances and partly on a lack of corroboration, but Villa have been linked with Torres quite a few timesin the past.
Crystal Palace & Bournemouth to battle over Italy international
We’ll wrap things up with a story concerning two teams who have been far too quiet in the transfer market so far – Crystal Palace and Bournemouth, who are both “suitors” for AS Roma and Italy midfielder Lorenzo Pellegrini, according to Sport Witness.
The two Premier League sides are said to be “interested” in striking a deal for the 29-year-old, whose future is in doubt after struggling over the past two seasons. Roma haven’t been considering a new contract offer, it’s claimed, and are looking to sell to get his wages off the books.
His salary, said to be £5.2m per year, is huge by Serie A standards but nothing too unfeasible for an English team these days, and Palace and Bournemouth could take advantage of the opportunity to pick up a fully-fledged Italy international. There’s no word about the transfer fee, however.
The 3AM Verdict: This report is based on Italian sources whose own stories feel very speculative – there’s no detail, no finances, and no suggestion of an approach by either side. Based on that alone, we’d have to say that the stories don’t sound very likely to prove accurate just now, but it will be interesting to keep an eye on.
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