Arsenal hatch plan to stop Saliba transfer as Man City plot outrageous £125m Chelsea swoop

Welcome to Tuesday morning’s round-up of the biggest Premier League transfer rumours currently doing the media rounds and, as always, we’re here with not just with the stories but our take on how likely they are to actually happen – and we’ll kick things off with a story which may offer some relief to any anxious Arsenal fans reading.

There have been a slew of stories since the summer connecting William Saliba with a move away from the Emirates – nobody has suggested that the Gunners have had any interest in letting the Frenchman go, of course, but Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain have all been rumoured to be keen on bringing their financial might to bear on a bid to sign Mikel Arteta’s star centre-half. TeamTalk, however, reckon that Arsenal have a plan to prevent him from going anywhere.

They claim that the Gunners are set to offer the “wanted man” a brand new deal which will extend his stay beyond 2027, when his current deal expires. The new weekly wage isn’t revealed in the article but it would presumably be proportionate to the “monstrous deal” which Real might make to try and sign him. It isn’t all good news, however, as TeamTalk also claim that a move to Madrid “would be of interest” to Saliba, but only at “some stage in the future”.

The 3AM Verdict: This has been a surprisingly persistent rumour, but it’s always been more likely that he signed a new deal than left simply because of the finances involved in such a deal – even clubs like Real and PSG only have so much cash to spare, and they can get a world-class defender for less elsewhere. It sounds like the result will simply be a nice, meaty pay bump for one of the Premier League’s best, and nothing we’ve heard or read makes us believe that Saliba will be anywhere other than the Emirates in a year’s time.

Man City’s outrageous Chelsea raid

Chelsea fans of a nervous disposition, meanwhile, might want to sit down for this one… according to Caught Offside, Pep Guardiola has asked Manchester City to “deliver” the return of Cole Palmer – who would, apparently, be the ideal replacement for Kevin de Bruyne. If only they had any way to have known that a year or so ago. They could have saved themselves a fortune.

Such a deal would allegedly require City to spend no less than €150m (£125m), which would shatter the Premier League transfer record. The article goes on to speculate that Palmer, who is signed a new nine-year contract this summer, “might be keen to come back and prove himself” at the club he left a little over a year ago.

The 3AM Verdict: Nervous Chelsea fans – please, take a seat and a deep breath, in whichever order you prefer, and try to stop fretting. This story is almost certainly absolute nonsense, for a number of reasons. Firstly, Guardiola is out of contract at City at the end of the season and it seems rather implausible that he would be making transfer demands before sorting that out. Secondly, the whole thing is implausible, from the finances to Palmer leaving having only just signed what may as well be a career-long contract at Chelsea. Finally, the original source of the story seems to be Spanish outlet Fichajes, the spiritual home of transfer rumours which don’t turn out to be real. We’ll stake our reputation on this one being gibberish.

Spurs target ready to leave

Finally, a story for fans of Tottenham Hotspur – at least, that’s how Football Insider headline their report, even though Liverpool, Chelsea and quite a few other teams have been tenuously linked with Borussia Dortmund youngster Jamie Bynoe-Gittens. Whoever it’s good news for, it sounds like the 20-year-old winger could be getting ready to leave the Bundesliga soon.

The Englishman has had a cracking start to the season at Signal Iduna Park but Dortmund are “open to selling” him next summer for “the right price” – the article, sadly, doesn’t claim to have the precise number to hand. Apparently all three Premier League sides we just mentioned have sent representatives to watch him in action in recent weeks, and the German side have given a good old-fashioned “green light” for him to take the next step of his career.

The 3AM Verdict: A quick and technical inside winger, Bynoe-Gittens has generated a lot of headlines since breaking through last season and a move to the Premier League seems likely in the near future. Whether that’s to Spurs or not, we’re not sure, as they may have other priorities in the transfer market and Bynoe-Gittens won’t be cheap. But we do expect him to move to England next summer if the stars even slightly align, and North London seems as likely as anywhere else.