Aston Villa get bad news about Rashford deal as Man Utd & Nottingham Forest join free agent race

 As we start to tick slowly towards the end of the season, the rumour mill is really starting to heat up a little bit – and to help you keep up-to-date with all the freshest and juiciest new Premier League transfer rumours, we’re here with our latest daily round-up, which today starts with some news that might worry Aston Villa fans.

As has been widely advertised, the Villans have a £40m purchase option included in the loan deal which brought Marcus Rashford to the Midlands, and are more than keen to trigger it given his impressive start to life under Unai Emery – but a spanner could be thrown into the works.

TeamTalk cite the French media in claiming that Paris Saint-Germain have “revived” their long-standing interest in the England international and have “renewed contact” between themselves and the player.

While Villa have a fixed price, they can’t force Rashford to sign for them if he gets his head turned by a bigger offer from elsewhere, and PSG could prove deeply tempting. He won’t be heading back to Old Trafford, however, as he has “no future” with Manchester United.

The 3AM Verdict: The ‘Rashford to PSG’ line is so old at this point that it’s hard to know if this is a serious revival of interest or just someone in the French media giving an old rumour an airing to get some readers interested – and indeed, for all that PSG were constantly linked with Rashford, to the best of our knowledge they never once made an actual bid. We’re prepared to be wrong, but our instinct is that Villa should get their man.

Chelsea make ‘fresh contact’ over £42.7m man

Another day, another story linking Chelsea with a big-money bid for a centre-half – we’ve seen them connected with just about every defender in Europe at this point, and now Caught Offside have decided to throw Dávid Hancko’s name into the mix.

We have, in fairness, seen this one before, and the Slovakian defender, who plies his trade for Feyenoord, has also been linked with Liverpool – this article puts both sides in the frame alongside Spurs, Juventus and Atlético Madrid.

Chelsea’s interest “is perhaps the most advanced”, however, with “fresh contact” made, although it isn’t cleat whether that’s contact with the player or his club. Either way, Feyenoord are “open to negotiations”, but will expect their €50m (£42.7m) asking price to be met. Which isn’t really a negotiation so much as a demand, but they may well be in the box seat here.

The 3AM Verdict: Hancko is a fine defender who will no doubt get his big move this summer, but we aren’t placing any bets as tom where he’ll end up – and nor are we taking any defender-to-Chelsea stories seriously just yet. Not because they won’t sign a centre-half, mind you, but because they get connected to a new player every other day. We’ll find out their real plans for the position soon enough.

Nottingham Forest among five teams in free agent chase

We’ll wrap things up today with a tale from TBR Football, who not only state that Dominic Calvert-Lewin is “ready” to leave Everton on a free transfer this summer but name five Premier League clubs who will be interested in signing him.

Teams whose names haven’t come up too often in connection with Calvert-Lewin include Nottingham Forest (makes sense) and Manchester United (their physio room isn’t busy enough as is), while Tottenham Hotspur “might also consider” a bid depending on how the window develops.

West Ham and Newcastle are also connected with an offer – neither new rumours – while a surprisingly starry list of overseas teams are also alleged to be interested: AC Milan, Marseille, Juventus and RB Leipzig are all mentioned.

The 3AM Verdict: A few of these big names may raise eyebrows but a lot of teams need a back-up striker and while Calvert-Lewin’s combination of fitness issues and recent scoring record don’t make him look like a big-ticket player, his proven ceiling and physical qualities will ensure a lot of suitors. He won’t be many clubs’ first choice, perhaps, but he’s bound to get some good offers on a free.