Spurs to ‘resist’ shock Man City transfer offer as Nottingham Forest risk missing out on £22m target

It’s time for Friday’s round-up of some of the biggest new Premier League transfer rumours that we’ve spotted doing the media rounds over the past 24 hours – and we’re going to kick today’s digest off with a tale which might worry Tottenham Hotspur fans.

According to The Daily Mirror, Manchester City have shown interest in Spurs left-back Destiny Udogie – but the North London club plan to “resist” any approaches for the Italian, with no asking price set for his services.

Udogie isn’t City’s first choice, it seems, and Pep Guardiola would still prefer to sign long-term target Andrea Cambiaso, but Udogie is on their shortlist should a bid for the Juventus man fail.

Spurs won’t let him go if they can avoid it, however, and is “highly regarded” internally, according to the report, and among the players that they are determined to keep hold of regardless of whether or not they change manager this summer.

The 3AM Verdict: Elsewhere, Fabrizio Romano has apparently responded to the rumour by claiming that Spurs view Udogie as “untouchable”, and this seems to be the consensus line – Manchester City, it appears, will have to settle for admiring Udogie from afar. Not a transfer we believe is likely to happen at all.

Nottingham Forest may miss out on Serie A star

Many of the stories we’ve seen concerning Nottingham Forest’s planned summer transfer business haven’t been all that positive – and we’re afraid we’ve spotted another report which suggests that Forest are struggling to persuade their targets to make the move to the City Ground.

An article from Sport Witness, via Tuttomercato and other sources in the Italian media, suggests that Forest are interested in Belgian attacking midfielder Alexis Saelemaekers, who is currently on loan at AS Roma from AC Milan.

Although Milan are happy to sell a player who struggled at the San Siro last season, Roma are keen to sign the 25-year-old permanently themselves and it seems that the player has “given preference” to staying in Rome despite Forest’s “growing” interest. Some good news, at least – Milan want up to €25m (£21.5m) and Roma are feverishly trying to negotiate that sum down. There’s a chance that Forest can outbid the Serie A side..

The 3AM Verdict: Real life is currently proving those frustrating Football Manager saves where players persistently refuse to move to your overachieving club right – we keep seeing stories suggesting that Forest want a European-level player, but that they don’t want to move. Surely Champions League qualification would twist a few arms, mind you…

West Ham United star has ‘special’ Saudi release clause

We’ll wrap things up today with a story for West Ham fans from GiveMeSport, which concerns the future of Ghanaian winger Mohammed Kudus, who has been intermittently suggested as a target for the free-spending Saudi Pro League.

Apparently, Kudus has a “special” release clause in his contract at the London Stadium which would allow him to leave for Saudi Arabia should West Ham receive a massive £120m – which, oddly enough, is far higher than his general release clause of £85m.

Al-Nassr are apparently keen on Kudus but have alternative options on their radar, including Brighton’s Kaoru Mitoma and Bournemouth winger Antoine Semenyo. They apparently believe that despite the release clause situation, the Hammers would accept a fee closer to £85m.

The 3AM Verdict: Unless West Ham have lost their minds, they should surely take £85m for a strong and dynamic player but hardly one who scores or creates enough goals to justify turning down a fee like that. As for whether even a Saudi Arabian side are willing to make that overpay when other options are available? We’ll see. It’s not impossible...