Chelsea ready to hijack Spurs' £60m transfer deal as West Ham £17m release clause winger

It’s Wednesday, and that means pretty much the same thing as every other day – our regular round-up of the biggest, boldest and hopefully most accurate Premier League transfer rumours currently doing the global media rounds. And this time out, we begin at Stamford Bridge, which is likely to be a hive of activity in the coming months. Again.

The Athletic ran through a big list of transfer updates yesterday, and while a lot of it was known information, one thing that did stand out was the suggestion that Chelsea are apparently lining up a bid for Eberechi Eze, the Crystal Palace and England attacking midfielder who has been a key target for Tottenham Hotspur.

Various reports suggest that he would set a side back around £60m but Spurs were the only side whose name had been routinely linked with him – but whether he’s a player that Enzo Maresca wants or just a player Chelsea have shortlisted for a while, he’d be an interesting pick-up, and there’s the suggestion that Chelsea could be looking to replace Conor Gallagher, who remains likely to leave, with a true number ten. They also remain interested in Eze’s Palace team-mate Michael Olise, among many, many others.

The 3AM Verdict: Trying to predict who Chelsea will actually buy is never easy, and at 25 Eze is perhaps slightly older than the players they usually go for – the plan has been to buy a young team that will play together for years, not that it’s necessarily gone so smoothly. In any case, Palace will do well to keep hold of Eze this summer, but they repelled Chelsea’s interest in Olise a year ago, so we won’t bet against either player staying just yet.

Spurs could be snubbed by Spain-based star

More bad news for Spurs fans, we’re afraid – Spanish outlet AS report that they’re interested in Girona winger Viktor Tsygankov, who scored eight goals in La Liga last season, but that they may be rebuffed by the Ukrainian due to their failure to qualify for the Champions League.

Girona, who were the Spanish top flight’s surprise package, will get the chance to play in Europe’s biggest club competition if he stays in Catalonia next season after his side finished third. He has, however, not yet signed a proposed new contract which would remove his reported €30m (£25.5m) release fee, and apparently other sides such as Arsenal and AC Milan have made enquiries as well.

The 3AM Verdict: We’re not sure how serious Spurs’ interest in the Israel-born 25-year-old is, although we’ve heard the Arsenal link before at least – but Tsygankov is a fine technical player who isn’t lightning fast but who has the dribbling skills and touch to beat players anyway. £25m sounds like the most a side should pay for him, if he does decide to push for a transfer.

Hammers ‘eager’ to sign Portuguese star

We’ll stay in the capital for our final rumour of the day – and it comes from TeamTalk, who reckon that West Ham United are “at the head” of the queue for Vitória forward Jota Silva, who scored 11 goals in the Portuguese Primera Liga last season playing as either a central striker or, more usually, a left-sided inside forward.

The 24-year-old is apparently drawing a fair bit of interest this summer, although the Hammers are the only club specified in the article, which cites reports in the Portuguese press. Silva reportedly has a €20m (£17m) release clause, although apparently the bid that West Ham are preparing to launch will come in a little below that.

The 3AM Verdict: Silva has worked his way up from the lower leagues in Portugal over the course of several years and was very impressive last season – notably, he’s genuinely quick as well as a fine finisher. He’s more of a goalscorer than a supplier, but could easily complement Jarrod Bowen on the other side of the front three, offer depth at number nine and sort out a position West Ham don’t have many players in.