Man Utd’s plot shock last-minute left-back raid as Man City close in on ‘one of the world’s best players’

We are, thank heavens, inside the last few days of the transfer window, which will slam firmly shut at midnight on Friday. In the short time remaining, there are still a few teams with some pretty substantial holes to fill in their squads – and while some of that can be put down to poor planning, Manchester United aren’t really to blame for how badly they need a left-back.

With Tyrell Malacia a long-term injury absentee, the recent knock to Luke Shaw leaves them without a specialist left-back, which is of course a bit of a problem – and so Erik Ten Hag is getting pretty creative with his solutions, one of which is to offer former Chelsea full-back Marcos Alonso a way back to the Premier League.

The Spaniard, who has fallen behind young Alejandro Baldé in the Barcelona pecking order, would arrive on an initial year-long loan with another year pre-arranged after his contract with the Catalan giants runs down – this is according to Sport Witness, anyway. Sky Sports, meanwhile, reckon that Tottenham Hotspur’s Sergio Reguilón and Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella are among the options.

The 3AM Verdict: This is a bit of a “beggars can’t be choosers” situation, and United are unlikely to wind up with the next Patrice Evra or Denis Irwin by the end of the process – but if you had to pick one of the three Spaniards allegedly on offer, it probably would be Cucurella that you’d pick, if only because he’s looked like a top-tier full-back more recently than any of the others. Not that high of a bar to clear, admittedly.

City continue pursuit of ‘one of the best players in the world’

Also from Sky Sports, a fresh update on Manchester City’s still-surprising pursuit of Wolves’ record signing Matheus Nunes, who arrived for £42m from Sporting last summer, didn’t do a great deal of anything for a year except dribble it neatly every now and again, and is now Pep Guardiola’s preferred replacement for the crocked Kevin de Bruyne.

City had an initial bid of £47m sternly rejected but are expected to come back with an improved bid in the immediate future, with Wolves hoping to hold out for £60m. Given their concerning FFP situation, it’s fair to assume that they might crack somewhere a little lower than that.

The 3AM Verdict: To be honest, given that Nunes hasn’t looked much like a £42m player since arriving at the Molineux, it’s mildly surprising that Wolves didn’t take City’s hand right off when the chance of turning a profit on the deal came up. Apparently Guardiola described Nunes as “one of the best players in the world today” when he was back at Sporting, a description that he’s been doing a fine job of disproving ever since, but at least Guardiola’s past admiration does suggest that the transfer bid isn’t the product of excessive codeine consumption after his recent back surgery.

Lukaku’s thirty million pound drop

Finally for today, an update on Chelsea’s efforts to offload Romelu Lukaku. The Belgian striker, who hasn’t even been given a squad number this year, has managed to make a meal of moves to Inter Milan and Juventus already and Mauricio Pochettino will be hopeful that it’s third time lucky when it comes to selling him off to a Serie A club.

Roma have been linked with Lukaku over the last few days but TalkSport have an intriguing update – specifically, they’ve found out how much money Lukaku will be giving up to make the deal happen. He’s currently on £17m per annum at Stamford Bridge, but will be down to just £7m a year if he joins José Mourinho in the Eternal City. Given that he has three years left on his contract at Chelsea, he’s passing up £30m in total…

The 3AM Verdict: In common with most people, we’d just turn up to training every day for three years, chat with the tea lady and take the £30m. But it seems that Lukaku still has some personal ambition left in the tank, which we suppose is vaguely laudable, if also slightly mad – he’s reportedly very interest in making the switch despite the financial hit. Pochettino is simply crossing his fingers and muttering prayers under his breath.