A round-up of the latest Premier League transfer rumours - with news from Liverpool, Spurs, Everton, Newcastle and more.
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As the transfer window nears its grand opening, we’re stepping up our regular round-ups of the biggest (and juiciest) new Premier League transfer rumours – and our latest digest kicks things off this morning with a story involving Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur.
According to Caught Offside, Liverpool are “monitoring” promising young Spurs centre-back Luka Vušković as they plan a defensive rebuild in the wake of Ibrahima Konaté’s decision to leave on a free transfer.
It’s said that “no official move has been made” as yet, but the Reds appear keen on the Croatian after a hugely impressive season on loan at Hamburg. There’s no word on how much Spurs might charge for him, but it will be an awful lot more than the £12m they spent to sign him from Hajduk Split in the first place.
Vušković isn’t the only name on Liverpool’s radar, apparently – Sporting’s Gonçalo Inácio is linked, as while it’s also said that they’re paying “growing attention” to Nottingham Forest standout Murillo. It sounds like no bids have been lodged as yet, and we’re in the process of due diligence following the appointment of Andoni Iraola.
The 3AM Verdict: None of the links in the article are necessarily unrealistic – there’s a very good chance that Spurs take the easy money on Vušković this summer even if that means selling to a Premier League rival – but this is also a very speculative account of Liverpool’s plans, with very little solid evidence to back any of its assertions up. We’re taking it all with a pinch of salt for now.
Everton face £22m hijack threat from Newcastle
Let’s take in a story from TEAMtalk now – they allege that Newcastle might well “complicate” Everton’s negotiations over Chelsea winger Tyrique George after identifying the 20-year-old as a potential target following the sale of Anthony Gordon.
Everton apparently have a £22m purchase clause in the loan deal he signed in January but are attempting to negotiate that figure downwards if they can – but Newcastle’s “rival interest” may either hurry them up or just give them a headache. There’s no suggestion that the Magpies have made an offer yet, but apparently George is firmly on their radar as they begin the process of replacing Gordon.
Everton’s talks with Chelsea are “ongoing,” and the player himself shouldn’t present a problem as he is said to be “open” to leaving Stamford Bridge in order to get some first-team football under his belt.
The 3AM Verdict: We haven’t seen enough evidence for the idea of Newcastle being interested in George to believe this story just yet, but we’d imagine a bigger barrier to getting a deal done would be the fact that Everton didn’t give George as many starts as he might have liked on loan – if another side comes in, they may well be able to make a stronger case for a deal. George started just one league game at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
Napoli star ‘attracting attention’ from Spurs
We’ll wrap this morning’s digest up with a story from Sport Witness, who reckon that Napoli midfielder Antonio Vergara is “attracting attention” from Spurs once more after they supposedly made an effort to sign the 23-year-old in January.
While Napoli allegedly see Vergara as “sellable” this summer, they’ll demand more money than they did over the winter, with the academy product now valued at around €30m (£26m) – a price that is only likely to be further inflated by rival interest from Como, who are also said to be “stepping up their interest” in Vergara as they look for a replacement for Nico Paz.
Apparently neither Spurs nor Como have opened up any negotiations as yet, but there appears to be an expectation that the bidding will begin at some stage after the midfielder enjoyed an impressive campaign in Campania.
The 3AM Verdict: Plausible enough, although at this point Spurs have been linked with so many players that some of the stories simply have to be wide of the mark. We doubt that Vergara would be a priority signing, but the suggestion that they made enquiries in January does make it sounds quite likely that they’ll have another go in the coming weeks.