Man Utd risk having key transfer move hijacked as Wolves bid for £16m Euros star

We’re into the last week of the transfer window, and it’s all looking set to be unusually frantic for a winter deadline, with a lot of teams manoeuvring feverishly as they try to get deals over the line. Often, a January deadline day is dull. This one definitely won’t be, not least because it’s in February. Either way, we’re here to keep you up to date with all the latest Premier League transfer rumours.

Let’s start at Old Trafford today, with news that Ruben Amorim’s plans to strengthen his squad may not be going so smoothly – although it’s so long since anything went smoothly for Manchester United that we’re not entirely surprised. According to Sport Witness via reports in Italy, a delay getting a deal for Lecce left-back Patrick Dorgu over the line could cost them, with another elite European team moving “under the radar” to lodge a last-minute bid for the young Dane.

As negotiations over a deal which could be worth up to €40m (£33.6m) grind to an apparent halt, Juventus are starting to circle “quietly”, with Dorgu an option for them should Manchester City sign current Juve full-back Andrea Cambiaso. The Old Lady is only “lurking” for now and haven’t made a move, but if United wait too long to get this one done then they could be on the receiving end of a good old-fashioned gazumping.

The 3AM Verdict: There’s a lot of haggling going on over the Dorgu deal, and we wouldn’t be entirely shocked if the Italian press were biting on a story that was ‘leaked’ to try and hurry United along a bit – not that we’d bet against Juventus showing interest, as City are very definitely keen on Cambiaso, especially with Kyle Walker moving on. But we suspect they’d not be so keen to meet Lecce’s asking price, so we’re betting on United for now. Not a sentence a smart person uses all that often.

Wolves in for Euro 2024 star

Some news from the Molineux now, where The Times are among the newspapers reporting that Wolves have lodged a bid, believed to worth around £16m, for Lens and Austria centre-back Kevin Danso, who was among the stars of his country’s brief but exciting Euro 2024 run last summer.

Apparently, Danso has been “a primary target” for a while now but new manager Vitor Pereira has now green-lit a move as the club looks to fix the second-worst defence in the Premier League. The 26-year-old, who had a loan spell at Southampton a few years back, could be in the Midlands by this weekend. Pereira also wants a “strong” midfielder before the end of the next Monday, with Mario Lemina expected to leave under a cloud.

The 3AM Verdict: An imposing figure who’s been on very fine form in France this season, Danso is a good passer and likes to get involved in snuffing out attacks at source – in other words, he should thrive in Wolves’ back three and has quite a few of the qualities the current back line lacks. It doesn’t sound like there’s too much competition, so we reckon this will be a done deal, and it’s one we think could be a very shrewd move.

Spurs & Everton after Rangers rising star

We’ll wrap things up with a transfer tale from TeamTalk, who reckon that both Tottenham Hotspur and Everton are casting admiring glances in the direction of Moroccan striker Hamza Igamane, who has impressed at Rangers after signing for a deal worth up to £2.5m in the summer.

With 13 goals in 27 games, the 22-year-old has drawn scouts from both teams to the Ibrox to watch him in action, with continental interest coming from Nice and Bayer Leverkusen. There’s bad news for Ange Postecoglou and David Moyes, however – Rangers value him “extremely highly” and have “zero intention to sell”, at least until the summer. One for the future, perhaps…

The 3AM Verdict: Two sides who need a striker right now might be left disappointed, by the sound of it. There’s no mention of what Igamane might cost, presumably because there simply isn’t an asking price beyond ‘silly money’ right now, but with Rangers’ hopes of mounting a serious title challenge already hanging by a thread, we don’t expect them to sell – or either club mentioned to bid sufficiently silly money. Come back in six months’ time.