Liverpool, Man Utd ‘join’ Bayern in ‘bid’ to sign Fulham star with two major exits pending

Liverpool and Manchester United will make an attempt to buy Fulham midfielder Joao Palhinha in January, according to reports.

The Portugal international has been in brilliant form for the Cottagers since joining Marco Silva’s ranks at the beginning of last season from Sporting Lisbon.

Palhinha completed his medical and media duties ahead of a potential move to Bayern Munich in the summer transfer window but the deal collapsed after Fulham failed to find a replacement for him on deadline day.

The defensive midfielder has been in particularly good form in recent weeks with Fulham hitting Nottingham Forest and West Ham for five in their last two matches.

Bayern Munich are likely to attempt to take Palhinha to Germany again in the January transfer window and now Spanish publication Todofichajes claims that Premier League sides Liverpool and Man Utd are ‘joining the bid’ to sign the 28-year-old.

It is claimed that Palhinha is now ‘one of the priority objectives of many of the big clubs in Europe’ and that Bayern are once again ‘one of the teams in the race for the player’.

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The report adds that Man Utd ‘want to reinforce the midfield in the face of the possible departure of Casemiro’ and that Liverpool ‘seeks to cover their backs due to the doubt about the continuity of Thiago Alcantara’.

Fulham are said to be ‘preparing for a sale of the player’ and the Cottagers are hoping a bidding war can take Palhinha’s price ‘much higher’ than the figures reached in the summer.

Transfer expert Fabrizio Romano recently revealed that Arsenal will also take an interest in the Fulham midfielder in January as they “appreciate the player”.

“What I can confirm about Palhinha, this was around the media in recent days, is that there are also English clubs interested in Palhinha,” Romano said live on Kick.

“One of those clubs is Arsenal. It is true that Arsenal appreciate the player. There are some people at the club who consider Palhinha a very good player. It’s one of the players they discussed internally.

“There are two issues. The first one is the age, he’s not a super young player. I think next year he will be 29.

“Also, the price. Arsenal cannot spend that amount of money, something like £70m-80m on one more midfielder after spending the big amount of money they invested on Declan Rice.”

“Bayern remain interested in Joao but yes, there are also UK clubs in the race now it’s true.

“He’s very expensive and that’s why clubs like Arsenal believe the investment is not easy at all for the January window, but things will happen around Joao, for sure.”