Manchester United eye shock rival raid as Fulham battle to bring club legend home to Craven Cottage

It’s Friday morning, and here at 3 Added Minutes that means… well, the same thing as every other day, as we pull together some of the juiciest new Premier League transfer rumours into one place for your reading delectation.

We start today in Manchester, with a pretty remarkable story from The Daily Mirror which suggests that Manchester United are interested in signing a player from fierce cross-city rivals Manchester City - James McAtee, who is "considering” his future at the Etihad this summer.

A “host” of clubs are keeping tabs on the England Under-21 star despite the fact that Pep Guardiola apparently wants to keep him around, but now United want to make him the first player to move between the two clubs since Owen Hargreaves over a decade ago.

With City attempting to sign Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen or Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White, McAtee may want to move elsewhere to get some first-team minutes. Newcastle, Forest, Leverkusen and AC Milan are all apparently monitoring McAtee’s situation, and now United are joining the fray. No word on how much McAtee might cost, or whether he would consider making such a controversial move.

The 3AM Verdict: With a rebuild on the horizon, United are getting linked with just about everyone and it’s hard to know which stories are true and which simply aren’t – we suspect that if United are interested, they’ll be frustrated. City won’t want to sell to a local rival if they can avoid it, and the player may sensibly want to avoid the backlash. We’d be amazed if this one happened, but not if McAtee went to a different team.

Fulham bidding to bring fan favourite home

Over to another surprising story, this time from Sport Witness, who picked up on German media reports which suggest that Fulham could make a move to bring midfielder João Palhinha back to Craven Cottage. The Brazilian was brilliant in London but has struggled to make an impression since joining Bayern Munich, and it sounds as though the Bavarian giants are happy to move him on – but they want to recoup the €51m (£43.5m) they forked out for him in the first place.

Marco Silva seems to be “keen” to bring the all-action midfielder back to the UK, but it remains to be seen whether Fulham can afford such a big fee, or whether a discount could be arranged. They’ll have competition, too – West Ham could try to outbid their cross-city rivals.

The 3AM Verdict: We doubt Fulham will be willing to throw away all of the profit they made on Palhinha, and for a team that tends not to spend too liberally, £43.5m is a lot. If Bayern are prepared to take a loss and sell him on the cheap, however, it could be another matter – we certainly believe that the Cottagers would love to have the 29-year-old back in the fold.

Arsenal ‘on alert’ over Chelsea starlet’s availability

Manchester United aren’t the only side trying to sign talented players from their immediate rivals, by the looks of it – if Caught Offside have their facts straight, then Arsenal are now “on alert” over a potential opportunity to sign Chelsea midfielder Andrey Santos.

The 20-year-old Brazilian has impressed on loan in France, scoring 10 goals in 30 games for Strasbourg and even earning a cap with the national team, but is apparently “not entirely committed” to battling for a place at Stamford Bridge next season. Santos could be available for a fee in the region of €45-50m (£38.5-42.5m) as a result, and the Gunners are among the clubs monitoring the situation. Newcastle, Spurs, PSG and AC Milan are also “keeping an eye” on developments.

The 3AM Verdict: Santos could struggle to get starting minutes with Chelsea, so it does make sense for him to consider forcing a move – Chelsea, meanwhile, could pocket a quick profit, something they sorely need. Would they sell to a rival like Arsenal or Spurs? They let Raheem Sterling cross the divide, so we don’t see why not.