Man Utd ready to beat Liverpool to £50m priority signing as Aston Villa eye bargain midfielder

It’s time for Thursday’s quickfire round-up of some of the biggest and wildest new Premier League transfer rumours – and it’s been a bumper day for stories concerning Manchester United, so that’s where we’re going to start.

Perhaps the most noteworthy claim we’ve seen comes from TBR Football, who reckon that Ruben Amorim’s side have “joined Liverpool in talks” over Bayer Leverkusen wing-back Jeremie Frimpong, who had been assumed to be the likely successor for the departing Trent Alexander-Arnold.

The Dutchman, who is valued at up to £50m, is now “firmly on United’s radar” as they look to gazump their regional rivals for a key signing. The move follows their failure to secure a deal for Geovany Quenda, who will join Chelsea.

Elsewhere, Italian outlet Tuttomercato claims that another £50m man is of interest, with United supposedly in for Atalanta and Nigeria winger Ademola Lookman. Atalanta are looking to sell their star man permanently this summer after friction emerged between the player and his manager. Lookman is now said to have his “bags in hand”. Newcastle United and Juventus are interested, too.

The 3AM Verdict: Elsewhere, we hear that United are leading the chase for Chris Rigg, that they want Viktor Gyökeres… honestly, if they signed every player they were linked with over the last 24 hours, they’d crash the local economy. As it is, we think Liverpool will end up with Frimpong, who they’ve been keeping tabs on for ages. Lookman is more plausible, but we’ve not seen enough to be convinced that United are definitely interested.

Southampton starlet could leave despite Tyler Dibling demand

The most eye-catching story involving Southampton over the last day or so came from The Daily Telegraph, who claim that the Saints have slapped a whopping £100m price tag on Tyler Dibling – but the England Under-19 international isn’t the only talent they risk losing this summer.

Sport Witness have picked up on some stories from Italy which suggest that Mateus Fernandes could well leave just a year after joining the south coast side, with Juventus already “eyeing him up” ahead of a summer bid.

We don’t know whether Southampton might put a similarly monstrous price tag on Fernandes’ head, but it seems that scouts at Juve have decided that he could their next Paulo Sousa, admiring his “vision of the game” and “refined feet”.

The 3AM Verdict: Much like Juve’s scouts, we have been deeply impressed with Fernandes and are far from surprised to see the big boys circling. Without knowing the asking price, it’s hard to know how realistic this story is, but Fernandes frankly seems to be too good for the Championship. Dibling is, at least, a little further behind on his development curve.

Aston Villa set for surprise Spurs raid

Let’s wrap today’s rumours up with a tale from TeamTalk, who claim that Aston Villa could be set for an unexpected bid for a player currently deemed largely surplus to Tottenham Hotspur’s requirements – midfielder Yves Bissouma.

The former Brighton man is a “confirmed target” for Unai Emery with Spurs unsurprisingly “willing to sell” so long as their valuation is met – although the report’s alleged price tag seems remarkably high.

TeamTalk claim that Spurs want £35m for a player who is down the pecking order at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which seems rather high, especially considering that he only has a contract which runs until 2026.

The 3AM Verdict: We don’t believe for a moment that Bissouma would cost £35m or that Villa would pay it, but we can see a deal happening at some stage – Villa need depth in midfield and Spurs need to finance a mini-rebuild this summer. The fee will have to come down, mind you.