Chelsea target £30m Arsenal ace as Man Utd & Spurs battle for Scandinavian wonderkid

Welcome to your Friday dose of Premier League transfer rumours, as we sift through the stories to bring you the biggest and boldest reports doing the rounds in the global football media. And we start, as we so often do, at Stamford Bridge.

According to Football Insider, Chelsea are firming up their interest in Arsenal's £30m goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale, who has been relegated to a back-up following the arrival of David Raya. Apparently, the Blues see Ramsdale as “a good option” with current first-choice Robert Sánchez failing to sufficiently impress since arriving from Brighton & Hove Albion last summer.

Further encouragement is provided by the fact that Football Insider reckon that Ramsdale is “keen to leave,” hardly surprising given that manager Mikel Arteta has hardly lived up to his apparent pledge to rotate both him and Raya. No fee is mentioned for the transfer, which may be complicated by the fact that Ramsdale only signed a new three-year contract in May.

The 3AM Verdict: Sánchez has not really looked like the kind of ‘keeper who can help Chelsea to realise their ambitions, not that he’s been a disaster, so we understand the desire to find a new number one – and frankly, there won’t be many better on the market that Ramsdale, who’s an excellent shot-stopper and a good-all round goalkeeper. It all depends on the price, of course, but since when has that stopped Chelsea?

United and Spurs slug it out for Swedish starlet

Over to news of a burgeoning transfer battle between Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur – which is happening over young Swedish forward Roony Bardghji of FC København, widely considered to be one of the most exciting young prospects in European football and the subject of a previous scouting report by us which you can read here.

According to Caught Offside – via Fabrizio Romano – the two teams have both been scouting the nifty 18-year-old winger, who scored against United in the Champions League earlier this season. Interest in a transfer bid has increased because København have been struggling to persuade Bardghji to sign a new deal, with his current contract set to expire in 18 months’ time.

The 3AM Verdict: We’re huge fans of Bardghji, who is a fine dribbler, a strong passer and dangerous in and around the area – in other words, he’s essentially the complete package as a winger, or at least is developing into it. Sadly, he isn’t named after Wayne, but in every other regard he looks like he could be a stellar signing, and looks increasingly likely to move in the summer. One to watch.

Forest star set for Madrid move

Finally, some sad news for Nottingham Forest fans – at least potentially. Sport Witness have been monitoring reports from both Spain and Brazil which suggest that young centre-half Murillo, who has impressed since signing from Corinthians last summer, could be on his way to Atlético Madrid at the end of the season.

Apparently Murillo’s agent is working away behind the scenes to make the move happen, so one can reasonably assume that the player is pretty keen to swap the City Ground for the Metropolitano – fair enough, to be honest – but the good news is that Forest can at least expect to turn “a big profit” on him.

The 3AM Verdict: Murillo has been very good in his first year in the Premier League and looks like he could develop into a distinctly handy player – there’s even rumours that he could be called up to the Brazil squad. So he may well be ready to make what would be a substantial step up, but at least Forest will make a decent bit of cash from the deal. It will be a shame to see him gone so soon, but if you’re making money from your young signings, then you’re doing some good business.