Chelsea make moves to beat Arsenal to £37m winger as Newcastle debate Tonali swap deal

Friday is finally here, and with it comes another daily dose of the biggest and boldest new Premier League transfer rumours – and we’ll kick today’s digest off with a story which suggests that Chelsea are closing in on yet another big-money winger.

Never shy of throwing a dart at that particular board, the Blues “have made moves” to put them in pole position to land Borussia Dortmund winger Karim Adeyemi this summer, according to Caught Offside, and are now “leading the race” ahead of Arsenal.

Adeyemi will only have one year left on his contract come the summer but he would still come with a hefty price tag – Dortmund would allegedly want around €45m (£37m) for the 23-year-old Germany international. Liverpool could make a move too, it seems, but that would depend on what happens with Mohamed Salah’s contract situation.

The 3AM Verdict: Adeyemi rumours are gathering steam and we expect to see a lot of them between now and the summer – a talented but inconsistent winger, he looks very likely to leave and Premier League sides have been linked with a bid for him for a while now. Chelsea have bought more left wingers than we can count at this point, but given that Jadon Sancho and João Félix haven’t stuck we wouldn’t be surprised to see them take another swing.

Aston Villa on the phone to prospective new goalkeeper

A story from Sport Witness next – they’ve been keeping up-to-date with some stories from Spain and picked up on the fact that goalkeeper Álvaro Valles has admitted in a radio interview to speaking to Monchi about a possible move to Villa Park.

Valles, 27, is a free agent after leaving Las Palmas in February, having terminated his contract my mutual consent after being replaced as first-choice goalkeeper last summer. Apparently he “turned down a big offer” from Villa with supposed competition for his signature coming from former side Real Betis. The article presumes, reasonably, that Valles would be a replacement for Robin Olsen as a back-up rather than serious competition for Emiliano Martínez.

The 3AM Verdict: It’s perfectly possible that Villa have seen a chance to get a cheap back-up should they want to move on from Olsen, but all this talk of turning down big contracts from a player who doesn’t have one does hint at a tactic to try and drum up interest (or just more money) from Betis. Perhaps that’s just us being deeply cynical, of course…

Details of Tonali deal interest emerge

Finally, a potentially worrying story for Newcastle United fans – it would seem that AC Milan are seriously interested in re-signing midfielder Sandro Tonali, and that he may only cost them around €50m (£41.2m).

This comes from Sport Witness again, via Italian outlet Calciomercato this time, with Milan apparently viewing Tonali’s departure as an “open wound that needs to be healed” – and they could be prepared to offer a player-plus-cash deal in order to get the ball rolling, with Malick Thiaw (who “enjoys the esteem of Eddie Howe”) a potential makeweight.

It’s emphasised that Newcastle have given little indication of wanting to sell Tonali, who has established himself as a first-team regular since completing a suspension for gambling infractions, but apparently the Magpies did look at signing Thiaw last summer before being put off by his €35m (£28.9m) price tag.

The 3AM Verdict: We’re not clear on where the €50m detail comes from as it sounds like Newcastle simply don’t want to sell Tonali – but stories linking him with a move back to Serie A come up remarkably often, with Juventus often mentioned as well, and we’re starting to wonder if there’s at least a little fire coming with all this smoke. Still, we’re retaining a very healthy scepticism for now.