A round-up of the latest Premier League transfer rumours - with news from Spurs, Newcastle, Chelsea and Nottingham Forest.
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Every morning, 3 Added Minutes combs through the gossip columns to bring you a round-up of some of the biggest (and strangest) Premier League transfer rumours which you might have missed over the past 24 hours – and today, we start off with a story involving Tottenham Hotspur.
According to TEAMtalk, Spurs “have opened talks” with Köln over a deal for impressive young winger Said El Mala, and “hope to beat” both Newcastle and Nottingham Forest to his signature.
All three sides have apparently been involved in “active dialogue” with the 19-year-old’s representatives in recent days after a proposed move to Brentford fell through – reportedly because his parents (who act as his agents) demanded that they also sign his elder brother Malik too.
That put Brentford off, but Spurs are “prepared to compromise” as they seek to do a deal with a player who is said to be “keen” to move to the Premier League. A deal is likely to cost around €40m (£35m), and Spurs are showing “optimism” that they can be the team to win the race.
The 3AM Verdict: The potential requirement to sign Said’s frankly less talented brother is a sticking point, but a number of sides are still monitoring El Mala, who was unfortunate to miss out on a place in Germany’s World Cup squad. Whether Spurs are likely to win the race or not simply isn’t clear yet, and this promises to be among the more protracted transfer sagas of the summer.
Chelsea make contact over £43m Atalanta star
Over to a story from Italy now, which comes courtesy of Corriere dello Sport – they reckon that Chelsea have made contact with the representatives of Atalanta full-back Marco Palestra to “request information” about his future plans.
Atalanta are apparently “ready to sell” the 21-year-old defender, who already has two caps for Italy, and are expected to demand a transfer fee in the region of €50m (£43m). Chelsea, for their part, are interested because they’re concerned that incoming Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca will attempt to sign Malo Gusto from them.
Whether that’s the case or not, Palestra’s response to their enquiries wasn’t promising – the young right-back “wants to go to Inter” and is rebuffing interest from other sides. He spent time with Inter’s academy before moving to Atalanta, and is clearly keen to return. He’s only likely to move elsewhere if Inter Milan can’t get a deal over the line.
The 3AM Verdict: Chelsea don’t appear to have Palestra down as a priority, simply because right-back is a position they have two strong options for, so this is just a case of a club doing their due diligence in case Gusto leaves – so they probably won’t be too concerned by his response. A move to the San Siro does look quite likely as it stands, although Atalanta do often play hardball with their negotiations.
Nottingham Forest deal getting complex as a second player enters the equation
Over to Sport Witness for our final story of the morning – according to them, it’s still “very possible” for Nottingham Forest to complete a deal for AS Roma centre-back Jan Ziółkowski but negotiations have become more complicated after the Serie A side started showing interest in Forest full-back Nicolò Savona.
Forest are “crazy” about the 21-year-old Ziółkowski, whose valuation is expected to end up at around the €20m (£17m) mark, but their deal was getting “held up” – and could slow down even further if Roma want to simultaneously negotiate a deal of their own for Savona, who signed from Juventus last August.
It’s not clear whether Forest want to sell Savona, either as part of a swap deal or quite separately, but Roma are said to be “confident” that they can do a deal for around €17m (£15m).
The 3AM Verdict: Forest have been keen on Ziółkowski for a while, and we suspect that they’ll get that deal over the line even if progress has been slower than hoped. If Roma do make a move for Savona, then we doubt it would be a swap due to the financial implications – more likely it would be the case that the two deals were negotiated separately. It’s not clear just how likely it is that Forest are willing to sell Savona as it stands.