Arsenal eye mighty £45m 17-goal winger bid as Aston Villa look to sign former Chelsea target
Our verdict on the latest Premier League transfer rumours, including updates from Arsenal, Aston Villa and Wolves.
Welcome to Friday’s digest of the biggest and sometimes strangest Premier League transfer rumours from the last 24 hours – and we begin today’s rundown at the Emirates, where there’s a claim that Arsenal are ready to make a bid for one of Europe’s most sought-after wingers.
According to The Daily Cannon, who cite a source in the Italian media, the Gunners are prepared to pay €50m (£42.4m) for former Everton and Charlton Athletic man Ademola Lookman, the hero of Atalanta’s run to the Europa League title last season.
The Serie A side themselves want a fee closer to €70m (£59.4m) to part with their star man, who is also being looked at by Liverpool, so Arsenal’s bid may well not succeed – but they are apparently debating whether to offer left-back Jakub Kiwior as a sweetener if necessary.
The 3AM Verdict: Lookman has had a very strange career but seems to be right on top of his game right now – he bagged 17 goals last season including that sensational hat-trick against Bayer Leverkusen in May. We’ve seen stories linking him to Paris Saint-Germain before and not Arsenal, so we’re not sure of the veracity of this one (The Daily Cannon, to their credit, are sceptical as well) and a fee near £60m seems a little steep, but we’ll see how it pans out.
Villa look to cash in on Chelsea’s missed opportunity
Just when you thought you’d heard the name Samu Omorodion for the final time, the young striker finds himself back in the gossip pages – but with his proposed move to Chelsea dead and buried after its eleventh-hour collapse, Aston Villa are now preparing to make an unexpected move, according to Spanish outlet Fichajes.
Apparently several clubs are keen but Villa are the only one that get name-checked here, with the article claiming that Unai Emery is “willing to bet heavily” on the 20-year-old forward. There’s no word on whether the £34.5m price tag that was agreed with Chelsea would apply here as well, but any deal would be for a “significant sum.”
The 3AM Verdict: Fichajes may be Spanish but that doesn’t mean they’re reliable when La Liga is involved – they have a pretty patchy track record, if we’re being blunt. A few other outlets are reporting this too, to be fair, but nobody seems to be providing a source and we wonder if this is a case of many websites copying each others’ homework a little. Nevertheless, Omorodion is talented but it seems odd that Villa would want to spend so much on a striker given that Jhon Durán seems to be staying put.
Wolves set to snap up centre-back
Finally, let’s stay in the Midlands to bring some news to fans of Wolverhampton Wanderers – according to Sport Witness, who cite the French media, Nantes centre-half Bastien Meupiyou is on the verge of signing and has a medical booked in at the Molineux later this week.
Apparently a second bid was required for the 18-year-old with the price set at €5m (£4.2m) plus add-ons and likely a sell-on fee. The medical will take place at the end of the week and he could be announced as a Wolves player on Friday – having made just one senior league appearance for his club, however, he’s likely to start his Premier League career out in the reserves.
The 3AM Verdict: This is being reported with slightly differing details in a number of outlets on both sides of the Channel, so we suspect this is pretty much a done deal even if the precise details of the package aren’t necessarily certain. A France age group international who played in the final of the Under-17 World Cup last year, he’s highly rated but probably a year or two away from being a full-time first-teamer.