Transfer Gossip: Bellingham ‘alternative’ valued at €150m by Brighton; Arsenal ready £100m Rice bid

Real Madrid have two Premier League midfielders lined up as Jude Bellingham ‘alternatives’ while Arsenal draw up a three-man midfield shortlist ahead of the summer transfer window.

Everyone knows that Arsenal are interested in signing Declan Rice. The West Ham captain is keen to play elsewhere with his contract expiring in 2024 and has high ambitions of playing in the Champions League. You can’t blame him. Multiple reports have said he is the Gunners’ number-one target ahead of the summer transfer window and this one is no different.

Football Insider state that Rice – who has rejected three contract offers at the London Stadium – is Mikel Arteta’s ‘top priority’ this summer, but the Spaniard is not expected to be short of competition for the England star’s signature.

Liverpool, Chelsea and Man City are also believed to be keen, though Arsenal ‘believe they have a strong chance of luring’ Rice to the Emirates. The same outlet reported a few days ago that the Gunners are readying a monstrous £100million bid to sign the 24-year-old.

The report adds two other Premier League midfielders to the mix with a new midfielder obviously high on Arteta’s to-do list in the summer window.

Arsenal failed to sign Moises Caicedo from Brighton in January, but the Ecuadorian remains on their shortlist. Another player they were linked with last summer was Amadou Onana, who joined Everton for over £30m and has greatly impressed in a poor Toffees side this term.

The Gunners like both midfielders and could reignite their interest if they fail to sign Rice, the report claims. Onana and Rice can both operate as a deep-lying midfielder but seem to thrive in a box-to-box role, whereas Caicedo is an out-and-out defensive midfielder. Who knows, Arsenal could sign two of the three with a return to the Champions League on the horizon.

Arsenal target Amadou Onana celebrates scoring a goal

Brighton’s Alexis Mac Allister has been one of the best midfielders in the Premier League this season and is rightly attracting lots of interest from elsewhere. Liverpool need midfielders and the Argentine strikes me as someone who would walk straight into Jurgen Klopp’s starting XI, while it is no surprise to see Arsenal linked with a move.

However, European champions Real Madrid have now been thrown in the transfer mixer. Defensa Central (via Fichajes) claim Mac Allister has been identified as an ‘alternative’ to Borussia Dortmund wonderkid Jude Bellingham. The race to sign Bellingham is fierce and Madrid are wary of losing the battle to Liverpool or Man City.

World Cup winner Mac Allister is apparently valued at €150m by Brighton, which will obviously put Madrid off, especially with Celta Vigo’s Gabri Veiga available for €40m.

Bruno Guimaraes also gets a mention. The Newcastle midfielder has been linked with a move to the Spanish capital during his entire Magpies career. Eddie Howe’s side have no reason to sell and the player seems very happy at St James’ Park, so it seems fair to rule this one out.

Marcus Thuram is expected to be on the move this summer when his Borussia Monchengladbach contract runs out, but a lot of the focus has been on his brother Khephren in recent weeks.

The Nice midfielder has been excellent this season and was rewarded with a France debut during last month’s international break. Labelled a “great professional” by his manager, Didier Digard, Thuram is under contract until 2025 and is valued at a very respectable €40m.

This is according to French outlet RMC Sport, who state that Man Utd, Newcastle and Liverpool are all interested in signing the 22-year-old. All three Premier League clubs have ‘positioned themselves’ to complete the signing and it is believed the midfielder ‘could be tempted by a new stage in his career’.