Liverpool deliver update on January move with Bayern set to spoil Chelsea’s £58m transfer plan

Welcome to Thursday’s round-up of the biggest and boldest Premier League transfer rumours from the past 24 hours – and we start with some news from Anfield which suggests that a Liverpool star may not be the long-term answer the club seek despite some public reassurances from Arne Slot.

TeamTalk claim that although the Dutch head coach has “poured cold water” on reports that summer signing Federico Chiesa could be shopped back to Italy over the winter, saying that such a move had never crossed his mind, the club have nonetheless decided that the injury-blighted Italian isn’t the long-term successor to Mohamed Salah.

With the Egyptian potentially leaving the club when his contract expires at the end of the season, there had been some hope that Chiesa might be a ready-made answer, but it seems that the club are looking elsewhere, and attempts to find a replacement “have already begun.” Slot had refuted the idea that Chiesa could be loaned to Juventus or AC Milan in January.

The 3AM Verdict: Fitness issues, a recurring theme for the forward in recent years, have prevented Chiesa from getting onto the field since he signed for Liverpool for £12.5m, but the rumour that he could be loaned out already did feel rather premature. As for the club deciding to find another winger for the long-term, we suspect that was a process that would happen regardless of Chiesa’s success or failure – with his injury record, he was never going to be able to fill Salah’s boots alone even at his very best.

Bayern set to scupper Chelsea plans

News now from Stamford Bridge courtesy of Caught Offside, who reckon that Chelsea had hoped to sign Porto and Portugal goalkeeper Diogo Costa in the future – but may now find that rather harder, with Bayern Munich apparently viewing the Yashin Trophy-nominated stopper as the heir to Manuel Neuer.

The legendary German goalkeeper is apparently contemplating retirement at the end of the season, and that means that Bayern will offer “competition” for Chelsea, who have apparently been interested in the player for a long time. The hope was that Costa could be an upgrade on current options – Porto, however, are not keen to sell, and are likely to demand at least €70m (£58.4m) to let him go, which is perhaps why no move was made in the summer.

The 3AM Verdict: Whether Chelsea or Bayern are involved, there will eventually be a bidding war for Costa, who is an immensely talented goalkeeper likely to end up at one of Europe’s elite clubs sooner rather than later. If that price tag proves accurate, however, we’d suggest that Chelsea would be in a better position than the report suggests – whatever the allure of a career at Bayern may be, they seldom spend that sort of money.

Liverpool & Arsenal target hits the market

We’ll wrap today’s digest up with a report from The Daily Mail which suggests that Borussia Dortmund are looking to refit their squad by transfer listing no fewer than five established players – one of whom has previously been reported to be a transfer target for Arsenal and Liverpool, among others.

That’s Dutch winger Donyell Malen, who is apparently up for sale with the expectation being that he would leave the club in the near future anyway, but this report suggests that Dortmund may be keen to move on in January if possible, which could change various clubs’ plans. Among the other players set to leave are Germany winger Julian Brandt, former Manchester United loanee Marcel Sabitzer and former Liverpool midfielder Emre Can, who is club captain for the Bundesliga outfit.

The 3AM Verdict: Recent struggles for form and consistency mean that some of these players will have less of market than they might have done before, but Malen is a high-end player and if he’s available at a cut-price then we’d expect to see a few Premier League clubs take a look. Brandt is another who may be of interest, although apparently his performances haven’t been at their peak of late. We’ve also seen Manchester United linked with Malen in the past.