Carlos Baleba Man United and more transfer sagas to watch

The Premier League season officially kicks off today, but all eyes are still on the summer transfer window, which has until the 1st of September to run.

Here at CaughtOffside we’ll be making it our mission to keep you up to date and informed on the sagas that matter, working together with top tier journalists like Fabrizio Romano, Christian Falk, Alfredo Pedulla, and Charles Watts, as well as reporting on our own findings through our connections with the agents industry.

Read on for the latest state of play on 11 major transfer deals that we think will be worth keeping a very close eye on in the next few days…

Manchester United

Carlos Baleba

Manchester United are very clearly not giving up on this one, with our sources informing us yesterday that talks have been ongoing for weeks to try to bring Baleba to Old Trafford.

Crucially, despite some long-standing interest from Manchester City, it is widely believed within the industry that Baleba has given the strong indication of making Man Utd his preference. While this does not yet translate to personal terms being fully agreed, it means the Red Devils have been given encouragement by the player and those around him to pursue a move now.

Fabrizio Romano has since confirmed that United “keep working” on the Baleba deal, even if it’s anticipated to be a difficult deal to strike with Brighton. David Ornstein has also gone on record as saying the club view this kind of signing as “absolutely essential”, so we can most likely expect more concrete movement on this soon, particularly once some key player sales go through.

READ MORE: CARLOS BALEBA PLAYER PROFILE

Jadon Sancho

One major United sale to watch will be Jadon Sancho, who is looking increasingly likely to join Roma. As first reported by Alfredo Pedulla for CaughtOffside, Roma have been gathering information on Sancho and now look prepared to press ahead with a £20m bid for the England international.

Juventus had previously looked like Sancho’s favoured destination, but Roma could also be an option. Meanwhile, the player has rejected approaches from Turkish clubs, having spent last season on loan at Chelsea but failing to earn a permanent move to Stamford Bridge.

Tottenham

Eberechi Eze

As revealed this morning, a crucial 48 hours is ahead in the Eberechi Eze transfer saga. Tottenham manager Thomas Frank is really pushing, and the player is open to the move despite interest from Arsenal.

Eze wants to play in the Champions League and is seen as an ideal signing for Spurs after the departure of Son Heung-min and the major injury suffered by James Maddison. Most sources in the industry are now indicating that THFC are clearly ahead of Arsenal in the race for Eze’s signature.

Although the Gunners’ interest had got to quite an advanced stage after multiple rounds of talks with the England international’s representatives, it has become increasingly clear that sales would be needed first. None have materialised so far, nor do they look particularly imminent at the time of writing, and that has allowed Spurs the chance to take advantage.

There are still details to clarify with Palace, who want something close to the value of Eze’s £68m release clause, while Tottenham view £55m as a fairer valuation.

READ MORE: EBERECHI EZE PLAYER PROFILE

Savinho

Another top target in attack for Tottenham is Manchester City winger Savinho. This has not yet progressed as quickly as some might have anticipated when the story broke a few days ago, but our sources can still confirm that Spurs are negotiating deals for both Savinho and Eze.

City could be ready to sell Savinho, but only on their terms, and a replacement would also be required. More on that in the City section later in this report.

Liverpool

Marc Guehi

Liverpool remain in talks over Marc Guehi and are keen to accelerate things, even if a deal is far from straightforward.

Crystal Palace are adamant in their asking price of £45-50m for Guehi, even if he’s in the final year of his contract, so possibly set to walk away on a free transfer in less than a year’s time. The player’s situation means Liverpool see this as a deal more in the region of £35m, but a compromise may be needed somewhere.

Liverpool are not necessarily in a hurry to do this now, but there is of course always a risk that waiting to sign Guehi on a free next summer will mean having to see off competition from a host of other top clubs, with Chelsea and Newcastle confirmed as previous admirers of the Eagles captain.

Ibrahima Konate

An interesting situation emerging, which could also impact the Guehi saga, is with Liverpool centre-back Ibrahima Konate and interest from Chelsea.

LFC want to keep Konate and a final round of contract talks is expected, according to Empire of the Kop, though a report from Chelsea News claims that the Blues are prepared to make an approach for the France international due to their injury problems in defence.

This does not necessarily look like a saga that is that close to being resolved, but Chelsea do need a defender and Enzo Maresca has not hidden his desire to fix his issues in that area of his squad…

?? Enzo Maresca: “The club knows what I think, we need a central defender in my view after Colwill’s injury… but we are looking internally for a defender”. pic.twitter.com/asUo9hyzk6

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 15, 2025

Maresca’s side entering the race for Konate could speed things up in the next week or so, and that in turn could surely impact what happens with Guehi and Liverpool.

Chelsea

Alejandro Garnacho

Despite interest from a host of other clubs throughout the summer, Chelsea are “firmly in pole position” to sign Alejandro Garnacho, according to well-connected sources we spoke to earlier today.

The 21-year-old Argentine only wants to join Chelsea and is pushing to leave United, which has put pressure on them to lower their asking price. It’s still a little higher than the £30m Chelsea would ideally like to pay for the player, however.

These kinds of sagas are a little unpredictable in terms of how long the back-and-forth will go on for, but the conclusion, whenever it comes, seems very clear – Garnacho will leave United, who want to sell, and Chelsea will be there as they make him a top target.

Christopher Nkunku

Player sales will also be important for Chelsea, and one name surely heading for the exit door soon is Christopher Nkunku.

As per Christian Falk, Nkunku is a topic once again for Bayern Munich, and it would make sense for this deal to accelerate soon due to issues for the Bundesliga giants in their pursuit of Nick Woltemade.

The Guardian also previously reported that Nkunku could return to former club RB Leipzig as part of Chelsea’s deal to sign Xavi Simons, though this is not understood to have progressed.

Manchester City

Gianluigi Donnarumma

As Alfredo Pedulla reported for CaughtOffside yesterday, Manchester City are ready to go “crazy” for the transfer of PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.

The Italian shot-stopper was not involved for Luis Enrique’s side as they beat Tottenham in the Super Cup final this week, and he has confirmed in an official statement that he’s set to leave the club.

Although City have already signed James Trafford this summer, it seems Pep Guardiola is also really keen to sign Donnarumma, who has *not* held talks with Manchester United or Chelsea, contrary to some reports. Watch this space.

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Rodrygo Goes

As reported above, Savinho’s departure from City is a possibility this summer, and Real Madrid’s Rodrygo Goes is a leading option to replace his fellow Brazilian.

We discussed Rodrygo last week after numerous links with Arsenal this summer, but the fact is that the player’s wage demands likely make him impossible for the Gunners. This would likely not be as much of an issue for City.

Arsenal

Oleksandr Zinchenko

Sources informed us yesterday that Arsenal left-back Oleksandr Zinchenko can leave the Emirates Stadium this summer. He has interest from Porto, Real Betis and Fenerbahce.

The Ukraine international is not necessarily in a hurry to leave this year, and could instead see out the final year of his contract in north London.

Still, Zinchenko has also spoken out about how difficult he found it being on the bench for almost all of last season, so this could be one that speeds up soon if any of the interested clubs step up their interest, and it will be interesting to see if that enables Arsenal themselves to go back into the market at least one final time this summer.