Newcastle United hatch bold plan to sign £35m star defender as Wolves eye controversial centre-half deal

Welcome to Tuesday’s round-up of the biggest and boldest transfer rumours doing the rounds in the Premier League right now and our takes on how likely they are to pan out – and we’ll start up in the North East with a story that has Newcastle United returning to a deal that seemed to be dead in the water.

Earlier this summer, Newcastle were negotiating a swap deal with Liverpool which would see Anthony Gordon head to Anfield while Joe Gomez came the other way. The report we’ve seen from TeamTalk doesn’t suggest that there’s any movement on the first half of those negotiations, but it does suggest that Gomez could end up in black and white after all.

With a deal for Crystal Palace’s Marc Guéhi proving tricky to get over the line, Newcastle may go back to the well for Gomez and will apparently be delighted to discover that the Reds have dropped their asking price from £45m to something between £30m and £35m. Still, they will apparently have to sell to fund any further moves, and four potential departures are mentioned – Miguel Almirón, Kieran Trippier, Jamal Lewis and Martin Dúbravka.

The 3AM Verdict: There’s nothing new in the list of possible departures, really, and the only real issue is finding buyers. All four players could easily be gone by September. As for the Gomez story, it looks like Newcastle haven’t given up on Guéhi just yet and this is a deal they’d only pursue if that move collapses. It also depends on Gomez, who seemed set on staying at Anfield not so long ago. We suspect this one doesn’t happen as there are so many factors in play that make it harder to get over the line, but we wouldn’t be shocked if everything in the report was under serious consideration.

Wolves look at relegated centre-back

News now from the Midlands – according to Football Insider, Wolverhampton Wanderers are “monitoring the situation” of Sheffield United defender Anel Ahmedhodžić and are preparing a bid for the 25-year-old, who was relegated with the Blades last season and who courted controversy after refusing to wear a rainbow armband in support of the LGBTQ+ community.

No fee is mentioned but apparently those in charge at the Molineux view the Bosnia & Herzegovina international as a “natural replacement” for Max Kilman, who moved to West Ham United earlier this summer.

The 3AM Verdict: There were a few stories suggesting this move back in July, usually with a figure of £20m attached, but this is the first time we’ve heard it mentioned in over a month, so while Football Insider certainly haven’t pulled this one entirely out of the ether it’s hard to know how much to trust it - especially when the only citation is unnamed sources and nobody else has run with the story since mid-July.

Palace not giving up on Guéhi replacement

Circling back to our very first story somewhat, Sport Witness have an update on Crystal Palace’s pursuit of VfL Wolsburg defender Maxence Lacroix, who the Eagles had identified as a possible replacement for either Guéhi or Joachim Andersen, who remains a target for Fulham.

Wolfsburg manager Ralph Hasenhüttl had previously told the media that he expected the French centre-half to stay put but this report, which cites local media in Germany, claims that a bid of €20m (£17m) or more would be “difficult to refuse.” There hasn’t been a bid yet as Palace continue to negotiate the sales of their current centre-backs, but apparently they continue to “prowl” around the 24-year-old Lacroix.

The 3AM Verdict: Lacroix is quick, technically solid and a very decent defender, so £17m or so sounds like a very fair price point indeed, and perhaps even a little unfair on Wolfsburg. The German media are absolutely convinced of Palace’s interest at this point, too, and we’ve seen so many links and sources that we suspect this rumour is very much the real deal – but it clearly depends on whether Andersen or Guéhi actually leave.