Liverpool line up surprise January signing as Arsenal eye young Champions League star

Welcome to your Wednesday morning round-up of all the latest transfer rumours floating around the Premier League – and we kick off today with an eyebrow-raising story from Sport Witness which could be of interest to Liverpool fans.

The Reds are one of quite a few Premier League clubs who have been linked with a potential move for Fiorentina right-back Michael Kayode, a 20-year-old who broke through in Serie A last season and was the subject of a failed summer bid by Brentford.

Most of the reports linking the two had assumed that he was on a shortlist of possible replacements should Trent Alexander-Arnold leave on a free transfer at the end of the season, but this story, based on claims in the Italian media, states that Liverpool are set to make a move in January. No transfer fee is mentioned, but apparently he’s in Arne Slot’s “notebook”.

The 3AM Verdict: We should be fair to Sport Witness, who share our sentiment that this seems a little unlikely unless some kind of loan deal was involved. Kayode is a big talent but isn’t even a nailed-on starter with Fiorentina quite yet, and signing him when he would be battling with Conor Bradley to play second fiddle would be an idiosyncratic move. We suspect Kayode’s big move belongs a little further in the future, and he may not be developed enough for a club the size of Liverpool for a few more years yet.

Arsenal serious about young Shakhtar star

A report now which may pique the interest of any passing Arsenal fans – Caught Offside has written up a piece which suggests that the Gunners will use next Tuesday’s Champions League game against Shakhtar Donetsk to scout young Ukrainian attacking midfielder Georgiy Sudakov (or Heorhiy, depending on how you transliterate it).

This is mostly interesting because while the article implies that the link is a widely-known one, Sudakov has spent far more time being connected with a move to Chelsea, and he was allegedly on their shortlist all summer despite a move never materialising. The report suggests that it’s “too early to say” whether the Gunners will actually make a bid, but that he fits the profile of the midfield reinforcements they’re looking for in the near future.

The 3AM Verdict: Sudakov is a number ten, so it’s Martin Ødegaard’s role he’d most likely be competing for, one of the reasons we’re a little sceptical that Arsenal would spent too much money on an attacking midfielder – most of the summer rumours had him priced at anything up to £65m. He’s due a big move sooner rather than later, but Arsenal would maybe be a slightly surprising destination.

Manchester United among two sides chasing Chelsea man

Finally, some news that will interest fans of Chelsea – and anybody who wants to know what forgotten man Ben Chilwell will do with his life once another side brings him in from the cold. We’ve seen not one, but two stories suggesting different potential destinations for the England left-back.

First up, Caught Offside reckon that Manchester United are keen, going as far as to say that they have made him “their top transfer target”. On the other hand, TeamTalk think he may actually be off to Napoli to hang out with Scott McTominay – the Italian outfit could “derail” United’s bid, apparently. No concrete claims of a transfer fee, as yet, or whether it would be a permanent deal or a loan.

The 3AM Verdict: The Chilwell-to-United claims came round just before the end of the transfer window as well, and nothing came of them even with the two clubs negotiating over Jadon Sancho, so we suspect that the interest, if genuine, isn’t quite enough for Chilwell to be described as the Red Devils’ “top target”. Napoli seem like a plausible enough destination, but we note that the original source of the story is The Sun. As a general rule, we wait for someone else to corroborate it before we believe them.