Paper Round: Paris Saint-Germain hoping to win January bidding war with Man City for Alexis Sanchez

With January fast approaching and continued speculation around the future of Alexis Sanchez, the Arsenal midfielder remains a hot topic. The Mirror reports that Ligue One club Paris Saint-Germain will start a bidding war with hot favourites Manchester City, which would prevent them from holding out until the summer to get him on a free transfer.

Paper Round’s view: At this stage in the game, Arsenal would be daft to hold on to Sanchez until the end of the season and may as well take advantage of any clubs prepared to pay out for him. If City are prepared to do so, our money would still be on a reunion with Pep Guardiola.

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Everton had reportedly given up the ghost in their quest to entice Watford manager Marco Silva into the managerial vacancy left by the sacking of Ronald Koeman, a month ago. According to reports, Everton will look elsewhere, despite Silva’s reluctance to commit his long-term future to the Hornets, after reaching a stalemate with the Watford board.

Meanwhile the rumours around Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone have refused to go away with The Sun reporting that the Argentinian’s representatives have made contact with The Toffees. Despite initial reports that Simeone had been targeted by Everton, The Liverpool Echo reports that in fact, it was the other way round…

Paper Round’s view: Poor old David Unsworth, Everton’s caretaker manager and just about the only person not to be linked to the job in any kind of serious terms. To us, Silva has always seemed a far more likely candidate than Simeone. A move to Everton would be a step-down for Simeone, so we’d be interested to know what the club had promised him, having already spent the best part of £150 million in the last transfer window.

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The Daily Star reports on Thursday that Arsene Wenger has identified his successor at Arsenal as Feyenoord boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst, with Bournemouth’s Eddie Howe close behind. According to the report, the Arsenal board will take Wenger’s advice on the issue, when he does finally move on, but he will not be responsible for the decision alone.

Paper Round’s view: Van Bronckhorst has played under a decent line-up of managerial talent, including Wenger himself, as well as Guus Hiddink, Dick Advocaat and Frank Rijkaard. He’s also impressed at Feyenoord, winning the Dutch top-flight league in his second season as manager, for the first time in 18 years.

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