Chelsea plot stunning swoop for £50m striker as Fulham close in on wonderkid bargain

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Our verdict on the latest Premier League transfer rumours, featuring news from Chelsea, Fulham and Arsenal.

Welcome to Thursday’s run-through of (and lowdown on) the biggest and boldest Premier League transfer rumours that we’ve caught doing the rounds over the past day – and we begin, as we are so often forced to, at Stamford Bridge, the spiritual home of scarcely credible transfer stories.

TeamTalk now believe that having done their best to sign Napoli and Nigeria superstar Victor Osimhen, Chelsea are close to giving up with it looking “increasingly unlikely” that they can get a deal over the line before the end of the transfer window – and as a result, they’re circling back round to Ivan Toney.

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They will have competition, however, as the article also claims to have details of the contract being offered to Toney by Saudi Pro League side Al-Ahli which they reckon would see him be paid around £325,000 per week, likely not a salary that Chelsea can match, especially given that Brentford continue to play hardball with the price tag – the Bees want close to £50m and have rejected Al-Ahli’s bid of £35m.

The 3AM Verdict: You can print any transfer story involving Chelsea and it becomes believable. If somebody told us they were re-signing Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, we’d barely bat an eyelid. So we’re effectively presenting this without a verdict, because Chelsea could do absolutely anything between now and the end of August…

Fulham open bidding for volatile wonderkid

News now from another (rather more sensible) team in West London now – according to HITC, Fulham have made an opening bid of £12m for Lyon winger Rayan Cherki, a 21-year-old who has been regarded as one of France’s brightest talents for some time and who recently won a silver medal with the Olympic team.

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If it seems unlikely that Fulham have the clout to sign a player with such a strong reputation, it may well be because Cherki, as prodigiously gifted as he is, also has a reputation for being rather difficult and causing friction in the dressing room. As he has a year left on his contract, however, he’s available on the cheap with Lyon direct David Friio apparently saying that he “will certainly leave.” Crystal Palace are also interested but haven’t made an offer.

The 3AM Verdict: We covered Cherki on Tuesday and both the Fulham and Palace links were very much alive then, as well – their interest is backed up by enough sources that we believe it. We also concluded that he’s probably worth a punt at that price, even if he likely has a lot of growing up (and perhaps shutting up) to do. Get it right and he could be worth five times that price.

Arsenal rebuff loan bids

Finally, we’ll hop on the tube to North London to get an update on Arsenal’s attempts to sell Aaron Ramsdale – and there’s progress, of a sort, because they have some bidders, but they’ve yet to hear an offer they like for their former number one goalkeeper.

Apparently both Wolverhampton Wanderers and Bournemouth have expressed an interest, at least according to Caught Offside (via Fabrizio Romano) but they “keep rejecting loan possibilities” as they are only interested in shifting Ramsdale on a permanent transfer. Apparently Romano still thinks that he’ll be gone by the start of September.

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The 3AM Verdict: There’s a lot of chatter that Bournemouth might be able to loan Giorgio Mamardashvili from Liverpool if that deal goes through, so we suspect their interest has been a bit tepid, but we’re not shocked to see Wolves having a go. Someone will crack before the end of the window, it’s just a question of whether it’s Arsenal letting him go on loan or Wolves (or anyone else) bidding for a permanent deal.

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