Welcome to Saturday’s round-up of some of the biggest, boldest and sometimes outlandish Premier League transfer rumors to hit the media in the last 24 hours – and we’re kicking off today’s round-up with news of a daring double-header. performed by Crystal Palace.
TeamTalk claim to have received word from various sources that Palace are considering bids to sign both Raheem Sterling and Carney Chukwuemeka from Chelsea, with AC Milan also interested in the latter – the fact that the Italian side are looking to make a first loan move gives Palace the opportunity to their offer is accepted.
Meanwhile, Sterling has been linked with Juventus and Aston Villa, but would apparently prefer to stay in London, where Palace could play. Chukwuemeka would set the club back around £20m, but there is no word on how much Sterling would cost a potential buyer.
3am verdict: The challenge of a deal for Sterling is financial as he is on an astronomical £300,000-a-week at Stamford Bridge, but Chelsea have tipped their hand by cutting the former England winger out of the first team, meaning the deal will must have done it somewhere. Chukwuemeka, however, is another player who is certain to leave – £20m may be too high a price as he has no proven track record. Both stories are popping up elsewhere, so we have no doubt that Palace are at least in demand.
Newcastle’s £80m target prefers to stay put
News now from St. James’ Park, where Newcastle United have apparently made an inquiry to Bayer Leverkusen about Edmond Tapsoba’s availability, presumably in case a potential deal for Marco Guéhi falls through – at least according to Caught Offside, which draws its story from sources in both Germany and Tyneside.
Apparently, Tapsoba had a €95m (£80m) buy-out clause and it would take a “really crazy” offer to arrange a sale. Even if Newcastle do want to make such an offer, they may not get very far as Tapsoba clearly wants to stay in Germany for another year regardless. It’s also bad news for the Saudi Pro League, which has been sniffing around.
3am verdict: If £80m is even close to the final price, it’s too much for Tapsoba, as talented as he is. We assume Newcastle’s alleged inquiry was genuine, but probably more a matter of due diligence if they can’t do a deal for Guéhi – that remains a priority and he’s probably worth the money.