Chelsea ready shock £25m Southampton swoop as Liverpool make surprise goalkeeper decision

It’s time for Thursday’s round-up of the biggest and juiciest new Premier League transfer rumours, and we’re going to kick today’s digest off with a story from Chelsea, which suggests that they might be ready to take advantage of Southampton’s struggles this year.

According to The Daily Mirror, the Blues have “long-standing interest” in goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale, who moved to the Saints in a deal which could be worth up to £25m last summer, and could make a “shock” bid for him courtesy of a relegation release clause baked into the former Arsenal stopper’s contract.

It isn’t clear how much that clause is worth, but Chelsea are growing frustrated with their goalkeeping options – Enzo Maresca recently replaced Robert Sánchez with Filip Jörgensen but his howler against Aston Villa at the weekend has thrown the goalkeeping situation back into sharp relief. Ramsdale could, perhaps, be the answer. The Blues were linked with him back in 2023, too.

The 3AM Verdict: It’s worth remembering that Ramsdale was winning rave reviews at the Emirates before Mikel Arteta rather ruthlessly decided to replace him with David Raya, so this doesn’t sound so very implausible to us – but it would be nice if the report carried a word about the size of the clause, as that’s probably a pretty relevant detail.

Changes afoot at Tottenham

Over to Tottenham Hotspur now, and a story from Caught Offside who claim to have some insight into some of the decisions being made ahead of the summer transfer market – with one midfielder on the way out and a centre-back surprisingly on the club’s radar.

Yves Bissouma could be given his marching orders and it’s alleged that Ange Postecoglou “doesn’t want” him, and that he isn’t “part of their plans” moving forward. Meanwhile one of his rivals for a midfield berth, Rodrigo Bentancur, will be offered a new contract.

There’s also a brief aside in the article, which largely focuses on Bissouma, which mentions that there is “an outside chance” that Spurs have a crack at landing Everton centre-back Jarrad Branthwaite, although there isn’t much detail on that claim.

The 3AM Verdict: Branthwaite would be a very expensive addition and there’s a chance that Real Madrid make a move too, so we’re not going to get too excited on Spurs’ behalf about that one just yet. Bissouma leaving seems plausible, meanwhile, as he’s slipped down the pecking order and it’s likely that Postecolgou wants more players in the centre of the park this summer, with Morten Hjulmand among those linked so far.

Liverpool set for surprise goalkeeper switch

Finally, a word from Anfield – TBR Football claims that Arne Slot may yet decide to delay the arrival of Giorgio Mamardashvili, who was bought from Valencia last summer for £30m and left on loan with the Spanish side for the rest of the season.

Apparently Liverpool have “not ruled out” keeping Alisson after all with two years left on the 32-year-old’s deal and “no final decision has been made” on whether Mamardashvili, one of the stars of Euro 2024, will replace him despite a deal already being in place. Liverpool could now seek another loan move for the Georgian and delay the transition to their next shot-stopper, although Saudi Arabian interest in Alisson remains.

The 3AM Verdict: Well, this is the problem with preemptively buying a really good goalkeeper to replace the one you already have – the original model might continue to be really good. Keeping Alisson on would be popular with the fans, but it remains to be seen what Mamardashvili would make of it.