Rounding up some of the biggest new Premier League transfer rumours - with news from Spurs, Liverpool, Manchester City, Nottingham Forest and more.
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Every morning, 3 Added Minutes works to help you stay in the loop with our round-up and review of all the latest Premier League transfer rumours – and today, we’re kicking things off with a potentially explosive story concerning Tottenham Hotspur.
According to TeamTalk (who base their report largely off a story from Alan Nixon’s Patreon), Spurs are “ready to make an offer” this January for RB Leipzig’s in-demand winger Yan Diomande – a decision which has supposedly “rocked” Liverpool, who also have designs on the young Ivorian.
Several elite European clubs are keen on the 19-year-old, who has made a massive impression since moving to the Bundesliga over the summer, but most clubs wanted to wait until the summer due to the cost of making such a move. Spurs, it would seem, have decided that they need to move now in order to follow up their “keen interest” and are now “taking on Liverpool” with a bid.
Spurs are “keen to splash out” but recent stories had suggested that Leipzig would demand as much as €100m (around £87m) – it remains to be seen whether Spurs are prepared to go quite that high, or whether Liverpool would follow suit. Nixon apparently simply said that an auction “may take the deal over £40m,” which sounds like an understatement if reports elsewhere are accurate.
The 3AM Verdict: It seems so unlikely that Leipzig will sell Diomande this month for anything less than top dollar, and we simply don’t think that a deal in the £40m region is remotely realistic. Spurs do, however, have a huge amount of PSR room and know that spending heavily now is the best way for them to beat other big-money Premier League teams with better league positions to a player they really want. Are they willing to splash quite that much cash? We’ll find out soon enough. We should also mention recent stories which claim that Manchester United have already had a bid rejected - although we were sceptical of those.
Manchester City ‘plot move’ to sign Brentford star
Over to a story from Football Insider now, who allege that Manchester City are “plotting a move” to sign Brentford’s impressive young right-back Michael Kayode in order to deal with their “long-standing concern” regarding the position.
Apparently City have sent scouts to watch him “on multiple occasions” and as such the Italian has been added to a shortlist which also includes Newcastle’s Tino Livramento. A January move is apparently seen as “unlikely” but City are keeping tabs on the situation nonetheless.
The main reason that a winter move is considered implausible is simply that Brentford don’t want to sell, according to this article – they’re well positioned for a run at a European spot and Kayode has been among their best players. It’s said that the Bees would demand a “significant fee” for him regardless of when a bid was made, but no specific amount is mentioned.
The 3AM Verdict: We’ll agree that a January deal is extremely unlikely but if City really are interested then Brentford would be willing to sell for the right fee – their transfer strategy still makes them a selling club, even now. We haven’t seen much corroboration of the claim that they are interested, however, although given that Kayode is regularly well-ranked in our weekly Wonderkid Power Rankings, we would certainly be on the same page as them if they were.
Nottingham Forest make ambitious ‘enquiry’ for Bournemouth man
Let’s wrap up with a quick story from The Daily Mail, who claim that relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest have “made an enquiry” as to the availability of Bournemouth’s Marcus Tavernier with a view to January move.
The Cherries, for their part, are said to be “insisting he is not for sale,” perhaps unsurprising given that their options on the wings are limited after Antoine Semenyo’s departure and injuries to players such as Ben Gannon-Doak and Justin Kluivert. It’s suggested in the report that he is too “important” to be sold at the current time.
What’s not in the story is how much Forest might be willing to offer, and what kind of transfer fee could change Bournemouth’s mind – either way, it’s unclear whether Forest will attempt to twist their arm or simply walk away and accept defeat.
The 3AM Verdict: It would certainly not make much sense for Bournemouth to sell Tavernier right now, so it’s really the kind of deal which would involve Forest being prepared to pay well over the odds. Which does happen in the Premier League, to be fair, so perhaps it’s not all that improbable. We doubt that he leaves Dean Court, however.