Chelsea consider shock bid for Newcastle star as transfer battle erupts over Bundesliga youngster

Welcome to Saturday’s round-up of the biggest Premier League transfer rumours currently doing the rounds in the media – and we begin, yet again, with Chelsea, whose free-spending transfer policy means that they generate rumours at a rate other teams can only dream of.

This time around, we have word from HITC that Chelsea are “impressed” by Bruno Guimãraes, the Newcastle United midfielder who has been one of the poster boys from their transformation from also-rans to the Champions League. He isn’t alone on their shortlist, however, as unnamed sources claim that they also have a long-standing interest in Barcelona’s Frenkie de Jong and Paris Saint-Germain’s Vitinha as they look to bolster their midfield.

Making way in order to fund their next transfer splash is Conor Gallagher, apparently. It’s been widely reported that Chelsea’s top brass want to sell him to free up some profit and sustainability space, and the article now claims that the club are “pushing ahead” with that plan.

The 3AM Verdict: The amount of money Newcastle would need to consider selling one of their most important players to a potential rival for European places is probably dizzying, but then dizzying sums are meat and drink to Chelsea these days. We still struggle to imagine this one happening, however, as there will simply be more plausible options elsewhere. The sale of Gallaghers seems increasingly probably at this point with Chelsea posting a pre-tax loss of £90m for the season – if they want to dodge a points deduction, selling home-grown players is probably the first thing they’ll have to do.

Five-way battle brewing for Bundesliga youngster

Word from Germany now – well, from HITC again, if we’re being honest – where it seems that a summer transfer scrum is building over Borussia Mönchengladbach’s 20-year-old left-back Luca Netz, with no fewer than five Premier League clubs taking a look at him in recent weeks.

Manchester United, Newcastle, Arsenal, West Ham United and Chelsea (of course) are the teams cited in the report, although apparently Bayern Munich seem his as a potential successor to the departing Alphonso Davies as well. No fee is mentioned, and we suspect that Transfermarkt’s valuation of €10m (£8.5m) is distinctly conservative given the feeding frenzy that seems to be developing around the Germany Under-21 international.

The 3AM Verdict: The West Ham link isn’t new, and they were purported to be looking at him ahead of the January window, but the other clubs entering the frame haven’t been mentioned before, so far as we know. Netz is still developing, as you’d expect, but is already a very solid all-rounder who contributes plenty at both ends of the pitch and has a very decent turn of pace. An exciting prospect, certainly, who seems increasingly likely to make a big move this summer.

Rom’s Roman discount

Finally, let’s circle back to Stamford Bridge to discuss the future of Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku, currently on loan at AS Roma following one of the more protracted and frankly bizarre summer transfer stories which saw him bounce between Serie A suitors in nonsensical fashion before settling in the capital.

According to Sport Witness, who have been keeping tabs on tales told by the Italian media, Lukaku “feels great” in Rome and is keen to stay, and Chelsea may even ease his passage by offering Roma a discount on the £37m option-to-buy fee that was agreed last summer. Roma’s “financial limitations” may force the Blues to drop their asking price and they seem happy to comply to get Lukaku off the books – but it sounds like his stratospheric wages may still be a sticking point.

The 3AM Verdict: There’s little point in offering an opinion on Lukaku. He’s either brilliant or diabolically bad with very little in between, and Chelsea are clearly tired of gambling on which version of the striker will show up. This is a clear case of a club who just want him gone and off the wage bill for good with PSR deadlines looming, and it looks like they’ll take a loss of just about any magnitude to make it happen. A pity, really, but Chelsea’s financial reality doesn’t seem likely to have any room for one of European football’s biggest and occasionally best centre-forwards.