Man Utd ‘exploring’ sensational Serie A swap deal as Newcastle & Aston Villa ‘tussle’ over £35m star

Every weekday morning, 3 Added Minutes scours the gossip columns to bring you a round-up of some of the biggest (and sometimes wildest) new Premier League transfer rumours you might have missed over the past 24 hours – and today we start with a pretty big story concerning Manchester United.

According to Caught Offside, the Red Devils are “exploring” a deal to sign AC Milan winger Rafael Leão, and are looking at including an unwanted player to sweeten the package – with Marcus Rashford, Joshua Zirkzee and Manuel Ugarte mentioned as players who could be used as makeweights.

Several sides are after the impressive Leão with PSG, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid all mentioned here (we’ve seen Arsenal linked in the past as well), but United are said to be the side that are “mostly strongly linked” with a bid for the 26-year-old left winger.

With Leão’s contract entering its last two years, Milan may well be prepared to negotiate this summer and are said to be “open to creative offers” such as United’s possible part-exchange offer. Apparently they’d be willing to start talks for around €50m (£43.5m) if they like the player thrown in as a sweetener.

The 3AM Verdict: A perfectly plausible story even if part-exchange deals are a rarity given how complicated they are to negotiate, although it’s worth noting that there’s no suggestion that a bid has actually been made – and we’re a little sceptical both of the source and the notion that United are at the very front of the queue for Leão. If they do make a bid, however, throwing a player in might make sense for all parties.

Newcastle & Aston Villa eyeing former Barcelona star

Over to a story from Spain now – Sport allege that Real Betis could be preparing to sell Moroccan winger Abde Ezzalzouli this summer, with both Newcastle and Aston Villa said to be “very attentive” to his situation.

The 24-year-old, who has scored 14 goals this season, has two years left on his contract with Betis which could force the Spanish side into a sale. They’re after a substantial sum: €40m (£35m), an amount somewhat inflated by a sell-on clause which would mean they have to pay 20% of the proceeds to Ezzalzouli’s former club Barcelona.

Although Ezzalzouli is “accumulating offers” from England, he has supposedly “never wanted to leave Spanish football” if he can avoid it, and has apparently rebuffed approaches from Bayer Leverkusen and the Saudi Pro League in the past. Whether that changes this summer as Betis look to deal with a difficult financial situation is unclear.

The 3AM Verdict: Ezzalzouli, who has had two excellent seasons on the bounce and is an established Morocco international, may be forced to consider moving given that Betis will probably want to sell. Whether Newcastle or Villa are serious suitors we don’t know as there’s very little detail to go off, nor other sources to back the story up. £35m sounds like a plausible price point if it is true.

Sunderland finding it ‘difficult’ to sign former Fulham man

Let’s wrap today’s digest off with a story from Sport Witness, who claim that Sunderland are “interested” in doing a deal for former Fulham midfielder André-Frank Zambo Anguissa – but also that signing him is proving to be “difficult.”

Current club Napoli have supposedly backed out of negotiations to extend Zambo Anguissa’s contract, which ends in a year’s time, due to injury concerns, and the 30-year-old Cameroon international now seems to be “headed towards the exit” as a result with Napoli seemingly happy to negotiate with Sunderland.

The reasons for the difficulty seem partly to be the fact that Zambo Anguissa “isn’t convinced” about the idea of signing for the Black Cats, and partly because Turkish side Besiktas are also interested. Apparently they’ve launched a bid for around €15m (£13m), with Napoli hoping to hold out for €20m (£17.5m). There’s no suggestion that Sunderland have tabled a bid just yet.

The 3AM Verdict: The primary source for the story is Italian broadsheet Il Mattino, which is generally a relatively reliable outlet, but we’re always slightly sceptical of what appear to be ‘repeat’ stories – Sunderland were linked with Zambo Anguissa a year ago, and sometimes these ideas get another go around to fill column inches even if they aren’t the real deal any more. Whether that’s the case here, we’ll find out soon.