Man Utd ‘discuss’ £95m deal for Newcastle star as Chelsea ‘set their sights’ on key summer targetplaceholder image
Man Utd ‘discuss’ £95m deal for Newcastle star as Chelsea ‘set their sights’ on key summer target | Getty Images
A round-up of the biggest new Premier League transfer rumours - with news from Manchester United, Newcastle, Chelsea and more.
Every morning, 3 Added Minutes dredge through the gossip columns to bring you our round-up of the biggest and sometimes strangest new Premier League transfer rumours which you might have missed over the past 24 hours – and today, we start off with a story involving Manchester United and Newcastle.
According to Caught Offside (via journalist Ben Jacobs), the Red Devils have held “internal discussions” about the possibility of signing Newcastle winger Anthony Gordon this summer, who “could be available” if the Magpies fail to secure a place in the Champions League.
Newcastle, for their part, would apparently be willing to sanction one big sale to raise funds should they fail to make it back to Europe’s top table, as seems increasingly likely. Gordon wouldn’t necessarily be the sacrificial lamb, but his price tag “could be as high as £95m,” perhaps putting him at the top of the list.
It’s also hinted that Liverpool, who have previously made moves to sign Gordon, could be in the frame too, although that’s clearly a more speculative comment. United are apparently more keen on than a young player like Mateus Mané, who has also been linked of late.
The 3AM Verdict: We firmly expect United to do most of their spending on the midfield, and have a hard time imagining them having £95m left over for Gordon. We will admit that it’s interesting to see this story crop up again just a day or two after it wasreported by Fichajes – at the time, we dismissed it because of the source, but perhaps there is something to it after all if multiple outlets are separately arriving at the same rumour.
Chelsea ‘set their sights’ on another Brighton star
Meanwhile, at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea are continuing their search for a new goalkeeper and have “set their sights” on Brighton & Hove Albion’s Bart Verbruggen – according to Football Insider.
The Blues “could make a move” in the summer with the club looking to upgrade on Robert Sánchez, himself of course one of the many players Chelsea have bought from the Seagulls in the past. Chelsea are not “happy” with the Spaniard, however, and are hoping to move on from him if they can.
There’s no word on the kind of transfer fee that Brighton might demand for Verbruggen beyond the vague assertion that it would be “massive” and there’s no suggestion that any kind of approach has been made yet.
The 3AM Verdict: The only source for this story appears to be a former scout with no connections to Chelsea or Brighton, so we’re frankly not planning to take this story all that seriously – not that it’s especially implausible. We certainly think Chelsea will look for a new goalkeeper, but if it’s Verbruggen they go for then that could just be a coincidence.
Newcastle looking to bring Saudi star to St. James’ Park
We’ll circle right back around to Newcastle for our final story of the morning, which comes courtesy of TeamTalk – who reckon that Eddie Howe’s side are “closely monitoring” Saudi Arabian full-back Saud Abdulhamid with a “view to a potential swoop.”
The apparently pacy 26-year-old is currently on loan at Lens from AS Roma and has 51 international caps to his name, and his contract in France apparently gives Lens a purchase option – but, to complicate matters, Roma have a buy-back clause, meaning that they could sell him, sign him and then sell him again for a profit if Newcastle were to offer enough money.
The exact amount that would be involved isn’t specified, sadly, making it hard to assess how realistic such a complex deal might be – but it’s also said that Everton have “also checked in” on Abdulhamid, whose employers Roma are their sister club through The Friedkin Group.
The 3AM Verdict: It’s very hard to know how plausible such a deal would be and much would depend on the financial details – but we don’t have a hard time imagining that Newcastle’s owners would be happy to have a Saudi player on the books. He seems to be playing well in France, so this may not just be a PR move, either.
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