Joao Palhinha is one of the best defensive midfielders in the Premier League sides right now and there’s a major chance that he could be playing for a new side in January.
Palhinha joined Fulham from Sporting in 2022 and to date, he’s played 56 games for the club. However, his performances have caught the attention of some of the biggest European clubs and all of them are keeping tabs on the 28-year-old Portugal international.
Bayern Munich narrowly missed out on signing Joao Palhinha before the start of this season as there was no time to complete negotiations but he’s still up for sale and a transfer fee of around £60 million will be enough to trigger a sale at the start of the new year.
It’s still not clear if Bayern will come back for him during the January window but as per reports, Liverpool, Man United, Arsenal and Manchester City are all keen to bring him on board.
Liverpool have held talks with the representatives of Joao Palhinha but Football Insider are suggesting that the Anfield management are not ready to spend £50-60 million on a single player during the middle of the campaign.
Arsenal and Man United are also interested in Joao Palhinha but they are yet to make up their mind which leaves Manchester City as the favourites to land Joao Palhinha. The Gunners and United are looking for midfield reinforcements but they will only go after the Fulham midfielder if they can offload players first.
Kalvin Phillips and Matheus Nunes have both failed to impress Pep Guardiola which is why City want to bring in a new defensive midfielder and a club like them won’t mind spending a substantial amount of money on the Fulham man.
Liverpool are not known as big spenders so unless Fulham are willing to lower their demands, there’s very little chance Liverpool will go after Palhinha.
Man City, on the other hand, have plans to offload Kalvin Phillips in January in which case they will have to bring in a new CDM and Joao Palhinha will be the perfect fit.
Arsenal and Man United can make a late dash for the Portugal international but if Manchester City are serious we do not see any other team coming close to signing him.
Bayern Munich are the most realistic competitor for the Cityzens but like Liverpool, the Bavarians are not likely to spend so much money during the winter transfer window.
