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Our verdict on the latest Premier League transfer rumours - featuring news from Manchester United, Spurs and Ipswich.
Welcome to Thursday’s round-up of the biggest and boldest Premier League transfer rumours – and today, we get to start by issuing our verdict on what would prove to be a pretty huge story concerning Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford.
According to Caught Offside, Rashford is now on the radar of the free-spending Saudi Pro League, which unnamed clubs contemplating a startling €100m (£86m) move for the forward, who struggled last season and lost his place in the England side as a result.
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Apparently, Rashford is a “top target” and the article speculates that the Saudis may “break the bank” and offer the 26-year-old a record contract. It’s worth noting the sources, here – they cite Spanish outlet Fichajes as the place the rumour originated while also bringing in a claim from The Sun that United are “willing to listen to all offers” for Rashford.
The 3AM Verdict: Let’s start with the sources. Fichajes have an exceptionally bad track record with accuracy, and we’d take anything they print with an entire sack of salt. The Sun, bluntly put, aren’t all that much better, although we don’t necessarily dismiss the idea that United would listen to an offer if it arrived. Given his form last season, they’d probably be quite right to take the £86m but to us, this feels like a story which is only worth ignoring unless it gets rather more substantiation than it has now.
Spurs turn to Mourinho as they make next moves
Over to Tottenham Hotspur now – TeamTalk claim that Ange Postecoglou’s side are eyeing up a bid for AS Monaco right-back Vanderson, apparently the culmination of some “long-standing interest” in the 23-year-old Brazilian, who has two caps for his country. Monaco, it seems, want a fee of around €40m (£34.3m) and apparently talks have already begun between Spurs and the player.
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In order to help generate the funds and squad space required to sign Vanderson, the report also claims that Spurs have gone back into business with former manager José Mourinho, who is now angrily berating referees at Fenerbahçe – he wants to sign Sergio Reguilón, it seems, and the Turkish club are “preparing an offer.”
The 3AM Verdict: The article’s insinuation that the two deals are linked seems a little far-fetched, but that’s no reason to dismiss either report out of hand – neither seems especially unlikely, not that we’ve heard too much about the “long-standing interest” in Vanderson before. He’s an excellent all-round right-back but with Pedro Porro and Archie Gray on the books it’s maybe a slight eyebrow-raiser. The Reguilón part of the report is entirely plausible on all levels, and wouldn’t surprise us one bit.
Ipswich hijack Brentford bid
Finally, news from over in Suffolk, where it looks like Ipswich Town are making some rather spicy moves in the transfer market – if Sport Witness have lined their facts up right, anyway. Primarily citing Italian journalist Gianlucia Di Marzio, they claim that the Tractor Boys are set to snap up Napoli midfielder Jens Cajuste, just two days after he was in Brentford having a medical.
The Sweden international had been set to sign for Brentford but the deal fell through at the eleventh hour, with Di Marzio apparently claiming that he failed that medical – but that hasn’t deterred Ipswich, who are making a surprise push to sign him on loan. Unlike Brentford’s deal, there would be no obligation to buy clause, which would at least protect them from any fitness problems.
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The 3AM Verdict: On Monday, we concluded that Brentford’s successes in the transfer market should earn them the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the signing of Cajuste, because while he had a rough time in Naples the underlying stats suggested he wasn’t quite as bad as he’d looked – but now that we know there are fitness issues too, it definitely adds an extra layer of concern. Nevertheless, as a simple loan, this would be a pretty low risk, high reward move by Ipswich, and the sourcing for this one looks good. We’re expecting this to have legs, and hopefully ones that work.