West Ham ready to rival Liverpool for huge €80m striker deal as big clubs circle for Bournemouth starlet

It’s still a few months before clubs can get their chequebooks out again, but the rumour mill isn’t taking a break for anyone – and we’re back once more with our daily digest of all the biggest new Premier League transfer rumours to help you keep track of all the goings-on.

We’ll start with a story from France – Sport Witness relay reports from Foot Mercato which claim that a few Premier League sides are showing interest in Eintracht Frankfurt striker Hugo Ekitike, who has scored 12 goals in 20 games for the German side since moving there permanently from PSG in the summer.

Arsenal and Liverpool are both alleged to be interested (and we’ve seen Chelsea mentioned elsewhere) but plucky little West Ham are preparing to take on the big boys to secure the signature of a striker valued by his club at a minimum of €80m (£66.3m), having previously followed him before he left France. The Hammers have “placed themselves” to take part in any potential transfer battle, having been “charmed” by Ekitike’s goalscoring record in Germany. The 22-year-old could be the man they want to break their run of disappointing striker signings.

The 3AM Verdict: Teams like Arsenal and Liverpool may be keeping a watching brief but he’s likely an alternative for them rather than a primary target after his struggles in Paris, so West Ham beating them to the punch isn’t so very implausible – although paying the better part of £65m might be. We’ll see if that valuation holds up come the summer, because the article does note that Frankfurt would likely be happy to take a quick (and hefty) profit.

Bournemouth release clause tempts big clubs

Let’s head down to the Dorset coast now to pick up some news from Bournemouth – and for once, it’s bad news for Cherries fans, because it sounds as though they may not be able to keep hold of rising star Dean Huijsen for much longer, with The Daily Mirror reporting that Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool are all “keeping tabs” on the 19-year-old centre-half.

Huijsen has been exceptional since breaking into the first team a couple of months ago and we’ve seen Real Madrid mentioned elsewhere, too, but the real issue is that his contract at the Vitality Stadium apparently includes a £50m release clause which kicks in this summer. No word on whether the Amsterdam-born Spaniard wants to leave or not…

The 3AM Verdict: Huijsen has proven to be a stellar signing by Bournemouth and at just £12.5m, they’ll turn a healthy profit if the vultures do descend – although they’ll probably try to put a new deal in front of him if he keeps playing as well as he has recently. We certainly wouldn’t be surprised if the big boys do make a move this summer.

Villa work on summer deal for forward

We’ll finish today’s column off with one for the Aston Villa fans, courtesy of Football Insider – according to them, Unai Emery has already given the “green light” to make the loan deal of PSG attacking midfielder Marco Asensio permanent over the summer.

PSG are open to offers for the 29-year-old and Villa have been sufficiently impressed by the former Real Madrid man over his first fortnight with the club that they’re already preparing to make a move, it’s claimed. A word of caution is also offered, however, with the article claiming that Villa have “fears” over their ability to meet the Premier League’s PSR requirements, which could force them to sell in order to buy Asensio or indeed anyone else.

The 3AM Verdict: We’re not too convinced that Villa will have made a decision already and note that the basis for this article seems to be the opinion of a former scout rather than anything substantiated by a source within the club – not that it’s all that unlikely that Villa do make a permanent bid come the summer, of course. As for the PSR worries, we’re not sure Villa are too high up on the list of clubs that should be sweating that sort of thing given that they made a healthy transfer profit this season, but perhaps they forked out enough in past years that it’s closer than we think.