Arsenal & Chelsea consider ‘shock raid’ for Spanish star as Man Utd ‘prepare’ £52m midfielder bid

Every morning, 3 Added Minutes combs through the gossip columns to bring you a round-up of some of the biggest (and wildest) Premier League transfer rumours which you might have missed over the past 24 hours – and today, we start off with a story involving Arsenal, Chelsea and Aston Villa.

According to TEAMtalk, all three sides are exploring a “shock raid” of Barcelona after learning that forward Ferran Torres could be available, with the 26-year-old’s future at the Camp Nou said to be “increasingly uncertain.”

With Anthony Gordon signed and Julián Alvarez also a key target, Torres could be moved on to make space for the new arrivals, and Arsenal are considering a bid with Mikel Arteta said to be a “long-term admirer” of the former Manchester City man.

Aston Villa and Chelsea are also “monitoring developments closely” as they debate whether to weigh in with an offer, while Serie A side Como are also keeping an eye on proceedings. Barcelona, meanwhile, have not yet reached a final decision on whether to sell Torres or not, and there’s no set asking price as yet.

The 3AM Verdict: Torres will definitely have his suitors if he does leave Barcelona this summer, although there’s very little evidence presented here to support the claims that Arsenal, Chelsea or Aston Villa will be among them and no word on who the sources behind the claims might be. In short, this could well be idle gossip rather than a solid scoop, but we’ll see.

Manchester United ‘identify’ Barcelona star as top target

We’re staying in Catalonia for today’s second story, which comes from Spanish outlet Fichajes – they reckon that Manchester United “have identified” Barcelona midfielder Marc Bernal as a key target, with the 19-year-old apparently seen as “a sound investment” by United’s recruitment team.

As such, it’s claimed that the Red Devils are “prepared to submit an offer” worth around €60m (£52m) as they look to open negotiations. Barcelona will apparently “analyse the offer carefully” but there’s no word on whether they’d lean towards accepting or declining.

It’s hinted that other European sides are monitoring Bernal, but they aren’t named and there’s no suggestion that any bids have been launched on the back of the youngster’s breakthrough season in Spain.

The 3AM Verdict: In our brutally honest opinion, Fichajes is not a reliable news sources and they don’t help themselves by getting Bernal’s age wrong in this report. We’re dismissing this for now, but stranger things have happened than a Fichajes rumour proving to be true. Probably.

Nottingham Forest ‘lead race’ for Polish star as Brighton and Bournemouth circle

We’ll finish today’s transfer rumour round-up off with a story from Sports Boom, who reckon that Nottingham Forest “lead the race” for Polish defender Jan Ziółkowski, a 20-year-old whose performances for AS Roma appear to have generated plenty of admiration.

As well as Forest, it’s also said that Brighton & Hove Albion and Bournemouth are both “tracking” the centre-back, with a departure looking “increasingly realistic” as Roma look to balance their books over the summer transfer window. West Ham were said to be keen too, but are now out of the race for what we’ll politely describe as obvious reasons.

Roma are “demanding” a fee in the region of €20-25m (£17-21.5m) for Ziółkowski and Forest are said to have taken “concrete steps” towards a deal having made a verbal offer – but that offer was just €15m, leading to a swift rejection. Forest see the youngster as a “priority target” but don’t seem to have come back with a bigger bid just yet.

The 3AM Verdict: Reports of Forest’s bid are backed up by several stories from the Italian media in recent days so we suspect that part of the story, at least, is true. We don’t have any tangible evidence of Brighton or Bournemouth’s interest and their names may be throw-ins, with the article even admitting that they view Ziółkowski as “low priority.”