Liverpool battle Spurs for bold £43m first summer signing as Chelsea plot latest ludicrous transfer deal

Welcome to Wednesday’s round-up of the biggest and boldest Premier League transfer rumours that have been doing the rounds over the past 24 hours – and, as always, our considered verdicts on them. Today, we’re going to start with a story that has both Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur locking horns to sign one of Europe’s most exciting defenders.

The player in question is Bayer Leverkusen’s ball-playing centre-half Piero Hincapié an Ecuador international who is very highly regarded around world football – and according to Spanish website Fichajes, Liverpool are “showing firm interest” in him with Spurs among the other sides keeping tabs.

Atlético Madrid are also in the race, apparently, although Leverkusen manager Xabi Alonso has apparently made it clear that he wants the 22-year-old defender to stay this summer – but “the player’s decision is crucial”, it seems, which would imply that Fichajes think the Ecuadorian might try to force a move if either club persuades him that their project is worth getting involved in.

The 3AM Verdict: Let’s start with a caveat – Fichajes have a long and storied history of printing transfer stories that go absolutely nowhere. That being said, Liverpool have been linked with Hincapié before, although not yet convincingly. He’s a hugely talented young defender so we’d be surprised if most of the big teams didn’t have him on their radar to some degree, so we’re taking this with a pinch of salt for now and we suspect that both sides’ priorities lie elsewhere.

Chelsea set to sell two and sign surprise replacement

Keeping track of the ins and outs at Stamford Bridge really is next to impossible at this point and Enzo Maresca must wonder if he’ll even know most of his squad’s name by the time the transfer window closes – especially if TeamTalk have their facts straight when they report that Chelsea are planning to let two centre-backs go in order to sign Liverpool’s Joe Gomez.

Gomez has been linked with Newcastle United this summer but the idea of a move to Stamford Bridge comes out of the blue. There’s no word on price but reports in the past had Newcastle paying anything up to £45m for the versatile England man. In order to drum up funds for this latest round of transfer shenanigans, Chelsea will apparently attempt to offload both Trevoh Chalobah and Benoît Badiashile.

The 3AM Verdict: Honestly, people could say anything about Chelsea’s transfer dealings right now and it would be at least somewhat believable. There’s certainly nothing here that’s weirder than everything else they’ve done over the past couple of years. Still, we’re a bit sceptical that they’d sign another centre-back and Gomez himself hasn’t seemed keen to leave Anfield. As for the potential departures, the Chalobah story is nothing new and while the Badiashile half of it is, we wouldn’t be shocked. He hasn’t made a big impact since arriving, sadly.

Forest taking second stab at striker

Nottingham Forest’s ambitious attempt to sign Mexico and Feyenoord striker Santiago Giménez hasn’t got off the ground just yet – but according to Sport Witness, who cite international media reports, the Tricky Trees haven’t been dissuaded and are going to go back with a second bid for a player who had been heavily linked with Arsenal and Spurs before his form dipped earlier this year.

The report suggests that Forest will need to up their original bid, reported elsewhere to have been in the region of £21m, considerably – and even then, apparently the club aren’t convinced that they should sell and the player himself “doubts their project on a sporting level.” Ouch.

The 3AM Verdict: Giménez is a strange case. He couldn’t stop scoring in 2023, was linked with a string of big sides, and then couldn’t hit the back side of barn door with a banjo once the New Year rolled around. Feyenoord seemed keen to sell, but now he’s started the new campaign by scoring four in three and seems to be back to his best, which might persuade them to hold out for a bigger offer and the player to hold out for a bigger club. We think Forest are sincerely trying, but they’ll do very well indeed to get this one over the line.