Liverpool to ‘table’ £26m bid for key West Ham target as Aston Villa plot shock swap dealplaceholder image
Liverpool to ‘table’ £26m bid for key West Ham target as Aston Villa plot shock swap deal | Getty Images
Our latest round-up of the biggest new Premier League transfer rumours features updates from Liverpool, Aston Villa, Manchester United and more.
Every morning, we at 3 Added Minutes bring you our regular round-up of all the biggest and wildest Premier League transfer rumours you might have missed from the last 24 hours – and today, we’re kicking our column off with a story for the Liverpool fans reading.
According to TeamTalk, it has “emerged” that Liverpool are planning a move for Toulouse centre-back Charlie Cresswell, one of the stars of England’s victorious European Under-21 Championship campaign – and a key transfer target for several sides, including West Ham, Crystal Palace and Newcastle.
Apparently the Reds are planning to “table a bid” worth around €30m (£26m) for the former Leeds defender, a sum which supposedly could be sufficient to persuade Toulouse to sell this summer. That would throw a spanner into the works of many other teams, with Brighton and Tottenham Hotspur also mentioned as possible suitors, as are sides from Germany.
It’s acknowledged in the report that Liverpool are also still keen on defenders including Micky van de Ven and Joel Ordóñez of Club Brugge, suggesting that a decision hasn’t actually been made as to whether to bid on the player.
The 3AM Verdict: This appears to be a report based on multiple other sources rather than anything TeamTalk’s own sources have told them, and at least one of the primary sources is not one we would trust. It’s perfectly possible that Cresswell is somewhere on Liverpool’s shortlist, but we strongly doubt that they’ve already determined that they will make a move. We wouldn’t be shocked if £26m wasn’t enough, either.
Aston Villa consider using Maatsen as swap deal ‘bait’
Let’s take in a story from Sport Witness now, who cite Italian media sources in claiming that Aston Villa could use left-back Ian Maatsen as “transfer bait” in the hopes of completing a swap deal over the summer.
Apparently Juventus are looking for a replacement for Andrea Cambiaso with the Italian full-back likely to leave in a few months’ time, and Maatsen has “caught their attention” – while Aston Villa now want to sign loanee Douglas Luiz permanently and could manufacture a swap deal with both players said to have “similar value” to their respective owners.
Maatsen is apparently “dissatisfied” with his current role under Unai Emery, who has primarily used the Dutchman as a back-up, and would perhaps be more than happy to be used as a makeweight. Villa can sign Luiz permanently for €25m (£21.7m) as it stands, but would seemingly be keen to lose Maatsen and save their cash.
The 3AM Verdict: Swap deals almost never actually happen due to the complexities of such deals, but it wouldn’t surprise us if these two deals happened separately – not that we suspect that Villa have made a final decision on Luiz barely five minutes after he moved back to the Midlands.
Manchester United’s ‘scout mission’ as they monitor defender
Our final story of this morning also happens to involve Juventus, but this time it’s a report from Football Insider which suggests that Manchester United have sent representatives on a “scout mission” to watch centre-back Pierre Kalulu in action at the Allianz Stadium.
The 25-year-old Juve defender is “attracting interest from several Premier League sides,” it’s claimed, but United are the team who are “preparing to make the first move.” The article also speculates that Kalulu could be a potential replacement for Lisandro Martínez, who is apparently the subject of interest from Barcelona.
Juventus, for their part, are apparently keen to keep hold of Kalulu and have already opened talks over a new contract despite the fact that the Frenchman is already committed to the Old Lady until 2029. There’s no word on what kind of transfer fee might be necessary should Kalulu decline to extend his stay.
The 3AM Verdict: Manchester United’salleged interest in Kalulu has cropped up sporadically in the gossip columns over the past year or so, without anything ever coming of it – so it’s hard to know whether this is a regurgitation of an old transfer link or something based on new information. One to keep half an eye on, but it sounds like Kalulu could very easily stay put.
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