Newcastle ‘leading race’ for Chelsea star as Man Utd get ‘full agreement’ on €25m deal

As part of our mission to make the fast-paced chaos of the summer transfer window just a little more digestible, 3 Added Minutes are back with our latest round-up of the biggest new Premier League transfer rumours – starting with news of a possible deal between Newcastle United and Chelsea.

“Negotiations have begun” over a deal which could see Newcastle sign defender Axel Disasi from Chelsea, according to Caught Offside, with the Magpies said to be “leading the race” for the Frenchman ahead of Villarreal, Aston Villa and other unspecified sides.

Chelsea are apparently asking for no less than €35m (£30m), but Newcastle seem to believe that they can knock that down to a more manageable €30m (£26m). That seems like a well-founded belief, given that Chelsea clearly want shot of the former Monaco man.

Despite his struggles at Stamford Bridge, it’s claimed that Newcastle are “big admirers” of Disasi and are “pushing ahead with a deal”, although it’s stressed that talks are in the early stages. There’s no detail on Aston Villa’s alleged interest beyond a claim that they would like to make his loan deal permanent, but it’s not suggested that any talks are taking place.

The 3AM Verdict: It’s not made clear whether these are talks between the clubs over a transfer fee or talks with Newcastle and the player, which are often far more informal and quite frequently go nowhere. In short, it’s a little early to know whether a deal is actually likely to go through at this stage.

Manchester United reach ‘full agreement’ over €25m transfer deal

We’ll stick with Caught Offside for our second story of the day – they allege that Manchester United’s wantaway winger Jadon Sancho has now reached “full agreement” with Juventus ahead of a potential move to Serie A.

Getting personal terms sorted won’t be enough, however. United are asking for €25m (£21.5m) but that’s “considered too high” by Juve and negotiations over a fee continue while Sancho himself is said to be “pushing” his current employers to lower their demands in order to facilitate a deal.

Juventus’ latest bid saw them offer £15m and while that probably won’t be enough, negotiations are said to be “progressing well” and Manchester United may have already “backed away” from their higher valuation. Sancho could be off the join the Old Lady very soon.

The 3AM Verdict: That has all probably taken longer than it should have, but the noises coming from Turin are pretty positive at the moment and we suspect that a deal to send Sancho to Serie A does materialise. There’s still time for everything to stall, of course, and United seem to have been rather inflexible with their negotiations in general this summer…

Leeds ‘accelerate’ move for former England star

We’ll round things off by circling back to Chelsea and their attempts to clear out their infamous ‘bomb squad’ of unwanted players. Football Insider reckon that they’ll get rid of one more player soon, as Leeds United “accelerate” their bid for left-back Ben Chilwell.

Admittedly, the article fails to make it clear what they’re actually doing to accelerate anything, as all it goes on to confirm is that they are “keeping a close eye on his situation”, which is hardly necessary given that everyone knows what it is – he’s looking for a new club.

The £10m signing of Gabriel Gudmundsson won’t stop Leeds from adding another full-back, apparently, although there’s no word on the financial details of any deal that might take former England star Chilwell up to Elland Road.

The 3AM Verdict: It’s as reasonable a rumour as any, but we can’t help but notice that Football Insider clearly don’t have much of an inside track on this – the article amounts to saying “Leeds might think about maybe bidding for Chilwell” in many more words, and the Whites haven’t actually lifted a finger to make it happen as yet. Perhaps there will be movement down the line, but it doesn’t sound like Chilwell will be moving any time soon.