West Ham hit with brutal rejection from £33m striker as Arsenal and Spurs bid for Bundesliga talent
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In today’s round-up of the biggest and boldest Premier League transfer rumours currently making the media rounds, we’ve got a three-way bunfight over a Bundesliga boy wonder and news of a player who could be leaving Arsenal – but to start, we’re off to the London Stadium for a word from West Ham United.
According to a report in the Brazilian media which has been picked up on by Sport Witness, the Hammers had made a bid for 23-year-old Botafogo striker Igor Jesus worth up to £32.5m – only for the player to reject the move.
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Hide AdApparently, Igor “wants to remain focussed on his current team”, who he only joined this year having previously played in the United Arab Emirates. Perhaps he doesn’t want to derail progress which saw him called up to the Brazil squad recently, scoring his first goal against Chile.
All of that is one version of events, anyway – Sport Witness also note a different report in the regional media which suggests that West Ham have yet to make a formal approach for Igor to reject.
The 3AM Verdict: Unless you’re intimately familiar with the reliability of different sources in the Brazilian media, we suggest taking your pick. It certainly seems as if the interest is genuine enough – if pressed, we’d lean towards believing that West Ham haven’t been turned down flat, simply because few players in South America refuse the riches on offer in Europe, understandably enough. If Igor has turned a Premier League club down, it's because he believes a bigger one will be along before too long.
Three top-flight sides in for German starlet
Elsewhere in the capital, a pair of London sides are among three teams alleged by Caught Offside to be showing “strong interest” in Eintract Frankfurt’s 20-year-old midfielder Hugo Larsson, with Arsenal apparently debating whether to “test the waters” with a bid of up to €40m (£33.3m) in January.
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Hide AdNorth London rivals Tottenham Hotspur are also said to be interested, along with Liverpool – seemingly as an aside, a few other teams like Manchester City and Borussia Dortmund are mentioned too. The bad news for the Gunners, and perhaps several others, is that a €40m bid would represent perhaps half of what Frankfurt want for him.
The 3AM Verdict: We’re more or less dismissing any reports which have clubs like Arsenal – who have ostensibly spent most or all of their annual transfer budgets already – making expensive moves in January, and suspect that it’s more likely most of these clubs make any bids they want to in the summer. That might give Frankfurt some time to rethink their price tag. The young Swede is talented but the posited €70-80m is surely too much.
Unwanted Gunner off to Serie A
Finally, some further news from the Emirates courtesy of Italian rumourmongers Tuttomercato, who reckon that Antonio Conte’s Napoli might be prepared to make a move for out-of-favour defender Jakub Kiwior – and we get an insight into what the Gunners might want to make a move happen.
Apparently Arsenal have no interest in allowing the 24-year-old Poland international to leave on loan, and any agreement would have to be on a permanent basis – and cost between €20m (£16.7m) and €25m (£20.8m). It sounds like it was the price tag which dissuaded AC Milan from making a move when they were linked with a bid over the summer.
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Hide AdThe 3AM Verdict: The basic message of the story is that Arsenal don’t want to let Kiwior go on the cheap, but would be prepared to sell him if the price is high enough. We suspect that particular price point will be too high for Napoli and other Serie A sides, certainly in January – so if this story has its facts straight, don’t be surprised if he’s still around come the end of the season.
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