Welcome to your Monday morning round-up of all the biggest Premier League transfer rumours than have rumbled around the media over the past 24 hours – and we kick off with bad news for any Liverpool fans who had set their hearts on signing Bayer Leverkusen wonderkid Florian Wirtz.The 20-year-old playmaker has been in scintillating form as Leverkusen continue their remarkable push for an unbeaten season and their first ever Bundesliga title, which has catapulted him to the top of quite a few clubs’ shopping lists – but Caught Offside have word from Fabrizio Romano that Wirtz won’t be on his way to Anfield this summer.
Nor will be going anywhere else, admittedly. Apparently “his plan is to remain at Bayer Leverkusen” and “there are currently no negotiations… it’s very quiet so far.” So at least it’s not personal or anything.
The 3AM Verdict: Liverpool’s name had been heavily linked with a bid for Wirtz and it would be one of the most exciting moves they could make – but the German international clearly wants one more year at Leverkusen, which will likely involve Champions League football as well. He’ll be worth a hell of a lot of money very soon, so Leverkusen won’t hang onto him forever, but for now Liverpool should perhaps concern themselves with signing his manager first…
Wolves & West Ham after ‘phenomenal’ shot-stopper
News from Italy, now, which has been picked up on by HITC – apparently AS Roma are going to have to sell off some of their best players this summer in order to pay the bills, and among the players who could be up for grabs in Serbian goalkeeper Mile Svilar, described by sporting director Tiago Pinto a player who “will be among the best in the world.”
Both Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Ham United are keen on the Belgium-born stopper, who has taken over as first-choice from Rui Patricio in recent weeks and impressed. He’s got a very healthy save percentage, is very good at dealing with crosses and has some especially luscious flowing locks as well. No fee is mentioned, but apparently José Mourinho has described him as “amazing” and “phenomenal.”
The 3AM Verdict: The 24-year-old hasn’t played too many games at the top level yet so we don’t have a huge amount of data to draw from when it comes to assessing Svilar but he looks very handy from what we’ve seen so far – and Mourinho is clearly impressed. That’s probably a good enough character reference to go on for now.
Finally, an update from East Sussex. According to Sport Witness – who cite reports from Spain – Brighton manager Roberto de Zerbi wants to bring Ansu Fati back to the Amex Stadium next season despite an injury-ridden first year in England.
Apparently De Zerbi is convinced that Fati “will explode” given a chance, and the Italian feels that his “mission is unfulfilled” in terms of getting the best out of the Spain international, who is regarded as one of the world’s most gifted players but who has been plagued by injury. According to the reports, it would be a second year on loan rather than a permanent acquisition.
The 3AM Verdict: The ceiling on Fati is astronomically high – he just needs to stay fit. That may never happen, which would be a crying shame, but it makes a lot of sense for Brighton to try. He’s simply too gifted and too good not to take a chance on. We just want to see what he can do if can go one year without an injury. Fingers crossed.
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