Newcastle United star's summer departure plans revealed as Fulham cool on Chelsea chase

Welcome to our midweek round-up of all the biggest Premier League transfer rumours which have been circulating around the media over the past day or so – and we start at St. James’ Park, where some fresh light has been shed on the future of Newcastle United’s Kieran Trippier.

The 33-year-old was linked with a surprise January move to Bayern Munich and although that never materialised, it has led to continue speculation that the England veteran could be looking for a new club come the summer.

Fabrizio Romano says otherwise however, according to an article on Caught Offside. Apparently Eddie Howe and the higher-ups at Newcastle “are still happy with Trippier to stay and be a part of their project”, which is why they in fact rejected Bayern’s bid over the winter. Romano does, admittedly, add “it’s still March so let’s wait”, which is some tremendous base-covering work, really. You have to admire it.

The 3AM Verdict: This may well be Newcastle’s last chance to cash in on a player whose age isn’t exactly going downwards, Benjamin Button style, so there will surely be at least some debate about moving him on – and some very up-and-down form over the season will probably add to the speculation. The question is whether Tino Livramento is deemed ready to be a starter. If not, then hanging on to an experienced campaigner seems rather wise.

Fulham cooling Chelsea interest

Some good news for Fulham fans which won’t go be as pleasing to their neighbours a couple of postcodes away at Chelsea. The Cottagers are preparing a contract extension for star centre-half Tosin Adarabioyo, which is all well and good, but their increasing conviction that they’ll be able to keep hold of a player who had been extensively linked with a move away means that they’re likely to lose interest in Trevoh Chalobah.

According to TeamTalk, there is “growing confidence” that Adarabioyo will stay at Craven Cottage, and that will cause them to “cool their interest” in Chalobah, one of the home-grown players that Chelsea are keen to flog in order to be able to fund another spending spree this summer. Other clubs may be interested, but this could be a move which sees one of the keenest suitors leaving the market at a time when Chelsea really need to make some sales.

The 3AM Verdict: Adarabioyo is a fine player and keeping him around would be great news for Fulham, and for anyone who gets a laugh out of watching Paul Merson struggle to pronounce any name more complex than ‘Smith’ on Soccer Saturday. Chelsea will, we suspect, find another buyer for Chalobah, but less competition will push the price down, and with the Blues playing with fire with the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules, that’s bad news.

Spurs’ scouting success

Finally, a fresh rumour from Sport Witness which suggests that Tottenham Hotspur recently sent scouts to watch Union Saint-Gilloise’s Mohamed Amoura in action against Fenerbahçe in the Europa League – but came away raving about a different player instead.

Apparently, Fener midfielder Ismail Yüksek, who is a Turkish international and something of a late bloomer, “convinced” them with his performance and will be back to watch him again in the Turkish Super Lig. The report suggests that the 25-year-old is worth around €7.5m (£6.4m), so if he’s as good as Spurs’ scouts reckon that he is, he could be quite the bargain.

The 3AM Verdict: This is one of those times when we are forced to confess that we’ve never actually seen Yüksek play, making it pretty tough to form an impression of him – but he’s a holding midfielder, something Spurs are keen to get their hands on this summer, and apparently could be rather cheap. Beyond that, we’ll have to take the word of the Spurs scouts, who probably know more than we do anyway.