Tuesday's transfer gossip is serving up a decent spread, and it kicks off with Real Madrid making contact over Southampton's Mateus Fernandes. The Portuguese midfielder has had a solid enough season in what has been a miserable campaign for Southampton, and it seems the powers that be at the Bernabeu have taken notice. Real have a long history of picking up talented young Iberian players before they fully hit their peak, and Fernandes fits that profile pretty neatly. Whether Southampton can hold onto him if Real come calling properly is another question entirely, but for now it's just contact rather than a full bid.
Over at Old Trafford, Manchester United are reportedly not willing to meet West Ham's asking price for one of their players. Now as a United fan, this is a familiar feeling — the club spending forever haggling while everyone else gets their business done early. To be fair though, not matching an asking price is sometimes just good negotiation rather than being tight, and West Ham have a habit of valuing their players at the higher end of the scale. Whether United eventually cave and pay up, find an alternative, or walk away entirely remains to be seen, but it's the kind of drawn-out saga that could easily rumble on into August.
Meanwhile in Germany, Bayern Munich are apparently moving to sign Ismael Saibari from PSV Eindhoven. The Moroccan midfielder has been one of the more eye-catching players in the Eredivisie over the past couple of seasons and Bayern adding him makes a lot of sense. They like technically gifted midfielders who can press and carry the ball, and Saibari ticks those boxes pretty comfortably. PSV will no doubt want a decent fee, but Bayern tend to get who they want when they put their minds to it.
All three stories are still at the gossip stage, so take them with the usual pinch of salt. Transfer windows have a way of making fools out of confident predictions. Let me know your thoughts.