Man Utd’s plot shock last minute left back raid as Man City close in on “one of the world’s best players”

According to the latest Premier League transfer rumours, Manchester United are on the hunt for a left-back and Manchester City are ready to land a new deal for a very wealthy midfielder.

Thank God we’ve already passed the last few days of the market, which finally ends at midnight on Friday. Pretty soon there will still be a handful of sides that need to fill significant gaps in their squad – and while this is partly down to poor planning, Manchester United aren’t really responsible for the needs of the squad.

With Tyrell Malacia sidelined for a long time through injury, they lack a specialized left-back after Luke Shaw’s recent goal, which is obviously a problem. Erik Ten Hag therefore proves to be quite creative with his solutions.

One of them is to allow former Chelsea substitute Marcos Alonso to return to the Premier League. The Spaniard, who has overtaken youngster Alejandro Baldé in Barcelona’s pecking order, will initially be handed a one-year loan deal with an additional year after his contract with the Catalan giants expires, according to Sport Witness.

Anyway meanwhile, Sky Sports estimate Tottenham Hotspur’s Sergio Reguilón and Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella are among the options.

The 3AM Verdict: This is a bit of a “beggars can’t be choosers” situation, and United are unlikely to wind up with the next Patrice Evra or Denis Irwin by the end of the process – but if you had to pick one of the three Spaniards allegedly on offer, it probably would be Cucurella that you’d pick, if only because he’s looked like a top-tier full-back more recently than any of the others. Not that high of a bar to clear, admittedly.

City continue pursuit of ‘one of the best players in the world’

Also from Sky Sports, a fresh update on Manchester City’s still-surprising pursuit of Wolves’ record signing Matheus Nunes, who arrived for £42m from Sporting last summer, didn’t do a great deal of anything for a year except dribble it neatly every now and again, and is now Pep Guardiola’s preferred replacement for the crocked Kevin de Bruyne.

City had an initial bid of £47m sternly rejected but are expected to come back with an improved bid in the immediate future, with Wolves hoping to hold out for £60m. Given their concerning FFP situation, it’s fair to assume that they might crack somewhere a little lower than that.

The 3AM Verdict: To be honest, given that Nunes hasn’t looked much like a £42m player since arriving at the Molineux, it’s mildly surprising that Wolves didn’t take City’s hand right off when the chance of turning a profit on the deal came up. Apparently Guardiola described Nunes as “one of the best players in the world today” when he was back at Sporting, a description that he’s been doing a fine job of disproving ever since, but at least Guardiola’s past admiration does suggest that the transfer bid isn’t the product of excessive codeine consumption after his recent back surgery.

Lukaku’s thirty million pound drop

Finally for today, an update on Chelsea’s efforts to offload Romelu Lukaku. The Belgian striker, who hasn’t even been given a squad number this year, has managed to make a meal of moves to Inter Milan and Juventus already and Mauricio Pochettino will be hopeful that it’s third time lucky when it comes to selling him off to a Serie A club.

Roma have been linked with Lukaku over the last few days but TalkSport have an intriguing update – specifically, they’ve found out how much money Lukaku will be giving up to make the deal happen. He’s currently on £17m per annum at Stamford Bridge, but will be down to just £7m a year if he joins José Mourinho in the Eternal City. Given that he has three years left on his contract at Chelsea, he’s passing up £30m in total…

The 3AM Verdict: In common with most people, we’d just turn up to training every day for three years, chat with the tea lady and take the £30m. But it seems that Lukaku still has some personal ambition left in the tank, which we suppose is vaguely laudable, if also slightly mad – he’s reportedly very interest in making the switch despite the financial hit. Pochettino is simply crossing his fingers and muttering prayers under his breath.