Newcastle United ready to seal mighty £55m double transfer swoop as West Ham eye Bundesliga wonderkid

Welcome to the weekend, and welcome as well to our latest round-up of the latest Premier League transfer news – once again, we’ve plucked the freshest and juiciest reports fresh from the global media vine for your delectation and on this occasion our first morsel will be of particular interest to Newcastle United fans.

According to Football Insider, the recent failure to sign Tosin Adarabioyo hasn’t blunted Eddie Howe’s appetite for a new central defender and they’re now set to “plot” a bid for AC Milan and England man Fikayo Tomori, who joined the Italian club from Chelsea in a £25m deal three years ago.

They’ve already made contact with Tomori’s representatives as he weighs up the idea of a return to the Premier League, apparently, but it doesn’t sound as though a concrete offer has been made and there’s no word on how much it would cost to sign him – given that he’s under contract until 2027, one would assume quite a lot, but perhaps new Milan manager Paulo Fonseca isn’t a fan. Elsewhere, the Magpies have also been linked with a move for Chelsea’s £30m man Noni Madueke.

The 3AM Verdict: Tomori was superb a few seasons ago when Milan won the Scudetto and while he’s not hit the same heights since, he’s still a fine defender with excellent judgement in the tackle and good passing, so really this just comes down to the age old question of ‘how much’? Short of an answer, it’s hard to gauge whether this would be a good move, but given that Newcastle are tip-toeing cautiously around the profit and sustainability rules right now, we suspect this would be too expensive.

Leeds starlet set to stay

Some news for fans of Leeds United now, and while this isn’t strictly a Premier League-related rumour it’s certainly of interest to the many clubs who have been linked with a bid for their brilliant young wing-back Archie Gray.

According to TeamTalk, Gray is now set to stay at Leeds for a little longer. That’s largely because his agent and his father, former Leeds player Andy, “fear his rapid progress could be stunted” if he went to a bigger team and ended up stuck on the bench. The article does note that an especially massive offer might yet tempt Leeds, but for his own part the Championship Young Player of the Year seems keen to stay put.

The 3AM Verdict: The wrinkle in all this is that Leeds are desperate to generate some cash this summer and are likely to sell as many of their high-value assets like Crysencio Summerville and Wilfried Gnonto as possible. That means that while Gray himself might be keen to remain at Elland Road, we wouldn’t rule out a club twisting Leeds’ arm just yet. But staying for another year would very likely be the best thing for the player as well as his current employer.

Clubs queue up for German wonderkid

Finally, news for fans of… well, everyone, by the sounds of it. According to Caught Offside, just about every team in Europe is debating an offer for 18-year-old Hertha Berlin attacking midfielder Ibrahim Maza – and the list of clubs includes several Premier League outfits such as Brighton & Hove Albion, West Ham United, Brentford and Leicester City.

It sounds as though half of the people in the Olympiastadion for the past couple of months have been scouts and Brighton, Leicester and West Ham in particular had their guys out watching Maza “on several occasion.” No word on a fee, but since relegation to the 2.Bundesliga Hertha probably can’t hold out for too much.

The 3AM Verdict: Maza has a huge work ethic, presses like mad and has excellent technique, and has looked sharp since coming back from a serious knee injury which kept him out of action for most of the season, so we can see why a lot of teams are intrigued. The usual caveats about price apply, of course, but if both Brighton and RB Leipzig are interested (as the article claims) then that’s normally a sign of a pretty substantial talent. You can trust those clubs to know whether a youngster is worth the time.