Man Utd star tipped for shock £86m exit as Spurs eye up big-money full-back raid
Welcome to Thursday’s round-up of the biggest and boldest Premier League transfer rumours – and today, we get to start by issuing our verdict on what would prove to be a pretty huge story concerning Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford.
According to Caught Offside, Rashford is now on the radar of the free-spending Saudi Pro League, which unnamed clubs contemplating a startling €100m (£86m) move for the forward, who struggled last season and lost his place in the England side as a result.
Apparently, Rashford is a “top target” and the article speculates that the Saudis may “break the bank” and offer the 26-year-old a record contract. It’s worth noting the sources, here – they cite Spanish outlet Fichajes as the place the rumour originated while also bringing in a claim from The Sun that United are “willing to listen to all offers” for Rashford.
The 3AM Verdict: Let’s start with the sources. Fichajes have an exceptionally bad track record with accuracy, and we’d take anything they print with an entire sack of salt. The Sun, bluntly put, aren’t all that much better, although we don’t necessarily dismiss the idea that United would listen to an offer if it arrived. Given his form last season, they’d probably be quite right to take the £86m but to us, this feels like a story which is only worth ignoring unless it gets rather more substantiation than it has now.
Spurs turn to Mourinho as they make next moves
Over to Tottenham Hotspur now – TeamTalk claim that Ange Postecoglou’s side are eyeing up a bid for AS Monaco right-back Vanderson, apparently the culmination of some “long-standing interest” in the 23-year-old Brazilian, who has two caps for his country. Monaco, it seems, want a fee of around €40m (£34.3m) and apparently talks have already begun between Spurs and the player.
In order to help generate the funds and squad space required to sign Vanderson, the report also claims that Spurs have gone back into business with former manager José Mourinho, who is now angrily berating referees at Fenerbahçe – he wants to sign Sergio Reguilón, it seems, and the Turkish club are “preparing an offer.”
The 3AM Verdict: The article’s insinuation that the two deals are linked seems a little far-fetched, but that’s no reason to dismiss either report out of hand – neither seems especially unlikely, not that we’ve heard too much about the “long-standing interest” in Vanderson before. He’s an excellent all-round right-back but with Pedro Porro and Archie Gray on the books it’s maybe a slight eyebrow-raiser. The Reguilón part of the report is entirely plausible on all levels, and wouldn’t surprise us one bit.
