Liverpool make shock move to 'hijack' Man Utd transfer as Wolves line up exciting Pedro Neto replacement

Welcome to the weekend, and welcome to Saturday’s dose of Premier League transfer rumour analysis. Every day, we pick out three of the biggest and boldest stories doing the rounds from the past 24 hours and assess whether they’re plausible or something the clubs should even be contemplating in the first place – and we start with a big story from the North West.

Football Insider reckon that Liverpool are launching an unexpected bid for Bayern Munich’s Matthijs de Ligt and are hoping to “hijack” a deal that many expected to be made with hated rivals Manchester United.

Apparently, Arne Slot sees the defence as a “priority” as he’s been unimpressed by Ibrahima Konaté, but this is the first we’ve heard about his interest in his fellow Dutchman. Manchester United have been working hard on a deal for De Ligt for weeks after the defender fell out of favour at Bayern, and out of Thomas Tuchel’s good graces.

The 3AM Verdict: The report comes slightly out of leftfield and it’s the first we’ve heard of Liverpool’s interest and it’s fair to note that Football Insider have a rather patchy track record, but it’s not inherently implausible – Liverpool do need a defender, after all, and De Ligt is available for the right price. That said, he’s not the kind of centre-half who’s necessarily well-equipped to play in an aggressive high line, which is Slot’s usual way, and he makes rather more sense from a playing perspective for United. But Slot knows his plans rather better than we do…

Wolves eye Neto replacement

Within an hour of reports that Chelsea had agreed a deal to sign Pedro Neto for around £54m on Friday afternoon, the rumour mill already had Wolverhampton Wanderers working on a replacement – or at least, Sport Witness did, with sources in the Portuguese media apparently claiming that Gary O’Neil has taken a shine to Ajax youngster Carlos Forbs.

The 20-year-old winger played 21 Eredivise games last season after he was snapped up from Manchester City’s academy, scoring twice and setting three more up for his team-mates. Apparently contact has already been made between the clubs and while Wolves think that Ajax want “too much” for now, the gap in valuations “doesn’t appear to be the end of the matter.”

The 3AM Verdict: It’s hard to assess how sensible this move would be without knowing just how much Ajax are asking for, but Forbs is a fun player to watch – he’s quick, a really nifty dribbler and loves to run both at defenders and in behind. He needs to work on his decision making in the final third to become more productive, but with the right coaching he could go a long way. He’d be a long-term replacement for Neto, not an immediate week-in, week-out starter.

Everton in for former Chelsea man

Everton had planned to go into the new season with the same strikers as last year but they may be forced to change things up at the last minute – Beto could be on his way to Italy, Youssef Chermiti has an injury and Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s immediate future still isn’t certain given that he has just one year left on his contract. As a result, they’ve got their eye on a couple of new targets should the need arise, if TeamTalk have their facts straight.

They reckon AS Roma striker Tammy Abraham is at the top of the list. Abraham has struggled to regain his best form after injury and it has looked as though Roma are content to move him on if they can this summer, but there’s no word on how much he might cost. Should Abraham prove unobtainable or simply too expensive for the cash-strapped Toffees, then Almería’s Largie Ramazani (who, rather wonderfully, is only 5’4”) is also an option.

The 3AM Verdict: The unfortunate Abraham has had a rough ride with his fitness recently and managed only eight appearances in Serie A last season, but he had been playing well and scoring consistently for a while before that – the quality to improve Everton is unquestionably there. We’re sceptical, at best, about the Ramazani link. He’s a pacey little winger, not a striker, and wasn’t very productive when his club got relegated from La Liga last year. But perhaps he’s a cheap option on the radar if some reinforcements are required. He’s definitely not Sean Dyche’s idea of a number nine, however.