Manchester United set to battle Spurs for £21m dazzling winger as Newcastle target Euro 2024 star

Welcome to Friday’s rundown of the biggest and boldest Premier League transfer rumours that we’ve caught doing the rounds over the past 24 hours – and today we start with a couple of Euro 2024-related stories as the breakout stars of the tournament start to generate some inevitable transfer interest.

First up on the post-Euros auction block is Turkey winger Barış Yilmaz, the Galatasaray winger who has caught the eye in Germany and has, as such, piqued a few teams’ interest, according to Caught Offside.

That includes Manchester United (who already had a “watching brief” but have not cranked their interest up a notch), Tottenham Hotspur and Brighton & Hove Albion, as well as a couple of teams in the Bundesliga. According to the article, Galatasaray want €25m (£21.1m) for his services.

The 3AM Verdict: Yilmaz has played every minute of Turkey’s group stage games but not necessarily been a standout performer, and his domestic form has been a little patchy, with a respectable but hardly overwhelming record for goals and assists. We have a suspicion that the 24-year-old would have a tough time living up to a €25m price tag, but there are always a couple of players who get sold for too much money after big performances at a summer tournament – and Manchester United did fall for Sofyan Amrabat…

Geordies in for Georges

One of the undoubted stars of the tournament so far has, of course, been Georgia’s charismatic striker Georges Mikautadze – and after topping the goal scoring charts in the group stages he’s also got a string of European clubs interested, including Newcastle United if Football Insider have their facts straight.

Mikautadze has had a strange year. He was promoted to Ligue 1 with Metz in 2023, sold to Ajax for €16m, given almost no chance to impress before being sent straight back to Metz on loan and was then sold back for €10m despite scoring a bunch of goals – despite which, they were relegated back to the French second tier. According to the article, however, they will now be able to sell him for around €25m (£21.1m) thanks to all that fresh interest.

The 3AM Verdict: Mikautadze has excellent off-ball movement and good finishing – or at least he does at Metz. Ajax fans certainly didn’t see the best of him, which he has since blamed on being left in a hotel on his own for months on end with minimal support from his new club. In any case, he looked pretty handy in Ligue 1 over the last six months and as Newcastle look for a new back-up option for Alexander Isak, they could probably do a lot worse. Great beard, too.

Palace in for Sporting star

Finally, some intercontinental news which has nothing to do with events in Germany – according to Sport Witness, who cite reports in the Portuguese press – Crystal Palace are interested in making a bid for Sporting star Marcus Edwards, the former Spurs academy graduate who has been in Portugal for the past two years, scoring 21 goals in 110 games for his current club.

Apparently the player is interested in moving back to England but nevertheless “wouldn’t be that keen” on a switch to Selhurst Park. If he proves persuadable, however (and Sport Witness seem to think that he can have his arm twisted), he would cost in the region of €20-30m (£17-25m).

The 3AM Verdict: Edwards is a tricksy player who is electric on his day but who can go missing sometimes, and he hasn’t had a brilliant second half of the season despite winning the Portuguese title with Sporting – but he could well fill the gap likely to be left by Eberechi Eze this summer. He’s often been linked with a return to Spurs, too, but nothing concrete has come of that yet.