Transfer news live: Liverpool and Chelsea battle for French centre-back and Arsenal want ‘unhappy’ Alvarez

Liverpool have long been admirers of Crystal Palace midfielder Adam Wharton and remain interested in his services.

However, the club will not actively be pursuing him in January due to an alleged price tag of £80m.

Rumours of a five-year contract for the midfielder have also been ‘shot down’ and, should this switch progress any further, it is likely to be a summer move at best.

West Ham United have verbally agreed a deal for Flamengo to sign Lucas Paqueta.

The £35.8m (€41.25m) transfer will be formalised in the next 24 hours and Paqueta will join Flamengo straight away.

That’s according to Sky Sports.

Paqueta had wanted to leave England to return to his home country of Brazil and now it seems as though the move is happening.

Nuno Espirito Santo said that Paqueta was the best player at the club so for the Hammers to let him leave it will be a blow to West Ham’s hopes of avoiding relegation.

With Casemiro’s exit now confirmed for the end of the season, Manchester United will need to strengthen their midfield in the summer.

The club have apparantly drawn up a shortlist of four players to replace him with summer moves the most likely.

Accordin to The Sun, the players United are looking at at Nottingham Forest’s Elliot Anderson, Crystal Palace’s Adam Wharton, Brighton’s Carlos Baleba and Bournemouth’s Alex Scott.

All four have previously been linked with Manchester United and if Michael Carrick can lead them to the Champions League this term then the Old Trafford higher ups will have a better chance of securing their services.

Julian Alvarez continues to be of interest to Arsenal and Gary Lineker believes he would be a fantastic signing for the club.

Alvarez had scored 40 goals in 86 games for the Spanish side and would bring more firepower to the Gunners forward line.

ESPN reports the Spanish club would reportedly demand a fee in excess of €100m to sell the player.

Alongside Arsenal, both Barcelona and Chelsea are said to be tracking the Argentina international.

“I saw they were linked with Julian Alvarez who I know is not entirely happy with life at Atletico,” Lineker said on the Rest is Football podcast.

“Now that is the sort of player you know can handle the big occasion – he’s a World Cup winner for crying out loud.

“Someone like that at Arsenal would be game over. But they do need one or two of these current forwards to start scoring on a reasonably regular basis.”

Chelsea had been linked with a January deal for Jeremy Jacquet to boost their centre-back depth.

But with a deal this month to sign the Rennes star seemingly unlikely, Fabrizio Romano is reporting that Liverpool and Bayern Munich are also in negotiations over a summer deal for the centre-back.

The 20-year-old has featured for the France Under-21s and played 17 times in Ligue 1 this term.