Paper Round: Cash-rich Barcelona could spend Neymar cash on Ousmane Dembele and Antoine Griezmann

Following the sale of Neymar Jr to Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona are on the hunt for a replacement. Their attention has turned to Ousmane Dembele, Borussia Dortmund’s 20-year-old French international forward. Dembele has scored once for his country, and already had a £90m price tag on his head going into the summer. That fee has become £100m now that the German club know Barcelona have money to burn. Antoine Griezmann and Angel Di Maria are next in line on the shopping list.

Paper Round’s view: Dembele is the sensible, long-term purchase if they cannot take Kylian Mbappe from Monaco. He is young, proven at the top level of football, and has the technical abilities to succeed in Spain. The only concern would be his ability to deal with a step-up in pressure moving to a club like Barcelona, but there is only one way to find out if he can cope. Antoine Griezmann is worth the wait for a club who don’t have too many options, while Di Maria is merely a pragmatic option.

Chelsea manager Antonio Conte expressed his frustration with the club’s slack attitude to transfers. Asked about why the club were happy to let Nemanja Matic go when they need reinforcements, Conte said: “You will have to ask the club about this. We have a very small squad and it’s very important to improve the numerical aspect. One new player will not be enough. We need more players.”

Paper Round’s view: Michael Emenalo has brought in plenty of talented players over the course of his time at Chelsea, but he is repeatedly a man who causes conflict with managers. Roman Abramovich is clearly happy to support him in cases like this, but it is hard to see why this kind of problem regularly arises when it could have been addressed when Jose Mourinho was also demanding more from the transfer market. Chelsea know how to buy quickly, and have done in the past - they are now failing with the Champions League looming.

Arsene Wenger mocked those who had either expected or called for his departure over the course of last season. Wenger was asked if he had a message for those who thought he now needed to deliver success on the pitch, and he replied: “I am sorry I am still here! I can understand that you want to kill me but at the moment, I survive. “Look, we won the FA Cup and made 75 points, and we are of course not happy with it but some teams made worse.”

Paper Round’s view: Wenger is a largely clever and decent man, especially by the standards set in modern football, but it is disappointing that he is happy to repeat the same mistakes each year, presumably expecting a change in results. His best two players will soon be leaving because they can’t find the trophies they joined for and the problem is not that some clubs did worse than them last year - it is that a growing number are doing better than them.

Mo Farah last night won another 10,000m race, this time a gold medal at the World Athletics Championships ahead of his retirement. It was a brilliant display, as he held on despite the relentless pace set by the pack ahead of him. Not only that, he was jostled and tripped on more than a couple of occasions as slightly underhand tactics were used in an attempt to unseat the best long-distance runner in the world. It was one of his very best performances.

Paper Round’s view: Farah can now turn his attention to road racing now that he has confirmed his status as the best 10,000m runner in all kinds of race circumstances. The reception he got from the London crowd showed that his attitude and success has garnered him tens of thousands of fans who would not normally care for athletics. He can now focus on the marathon with similar support from the country.