Paper Round: Arsene Wenger dismisses fake news, Mesut Ozil to Fenerbahce?

The Mirror reports Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil could be headed east as Turkish side Fenerbahce hope to secure the Germany international's signature for next season. Ozil has apparently turned down a massive £280,000 per week offer from Arsenal and the newspaper says with the star struggling to find his form recently, there is no obvious destination where he could expect to earn anywhere near that amount.

The paper says Fenerbahce could make a generous offer for Ozil if they lose former Gunner Robin van Persie at the end of the season, as is apparently predicted.

Paper Round's view: The main basis for this story seems to be that Ozil - so says the paper - is dating a Turkish woman and has Turkish parents, which seems to be something of a theme in recent rumours (see Ozil's boss Arsene Wenger, below). We don't mean to be rude about the Turkish Super Lig, but by and large the better known players it has attracted in recent years - Van Persie, for example, or Lukas Podolski and Wesley Sneijder - have all been in the hinterland of their careers. At 28 and with his talent, Ozil should have a good few years before any such move would be necessary.

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Fresh from his recall to the England squad, four years since his last international cap, Jermain Defoe is rumoured to be on the cusp of a return to East London. Defoe has scored a whopping 14 goals this season and will no doubt be looking to move on if Sunderland are relegated at the end of the season, as now looks increasingly likely. West Ham tried twice to sign Defoe in January, but to no avail given their far-from generous offer. Sunderland will live to regret holding out on the Hammers if The Sun's report that relegation for the Black Cats could allow Defoe to leave the club on a free transfer is correct.

Paper Round’s view: Defoe has had a decent couple of seasons at Sunderland and though at 34 and clearly in the twilight years of his career, there's absolutely no reason he couldn't go on for at least another season. Well, if it's good enough for Zlatan (who's only scored one goal more than Defoe this season, in fact)... It's no secret that West Ham want to sign Defoe, and it would make for a nice story if his career ended where it began, many moons ago.

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Wednesday's papers continue to speculate about the future of Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, who is expected to make an announcement shortly about his future at the club - or not, as the case may be. As the north Londoners near the end of another disappointing season, Wenger has been frequently linked to Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain, but he denied the rumours to BeIN Sports. He said: "It is a false rumour, that is what you call 'fake news'. I formally deny it, it is not true."

Paper Round’s view: We're struggling a bit with the basis for these PSG rumours other than the fact that - like PSG - Wenger is French. Surely Wenger would be a pretty unappealing option for a team looking to improve their standing in the Champions League right now. As Paper Round said of yesterday's story about Wenger and PSG - because it's worth remembering, this is just one of many - given his track record in Europe, it's hard to imagine Wenger would seem an attractive option to the Parisians.

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Joey Barton has hit out at N'Golo Kante who he says, according to his experience of playing against the Frenchman in the Premier League, is, er, not that good. Kante has enjoyed plaudits from pundits, players and fans alike this year after his £30 million signing by Chelsea in the summer. The Daily Mirror quotes Barton as saying: “For pundits, he’s the best midfielder in the world. Oh! He’s very good, but I played against him three weeks ago, and that’s not the case. He’s a fantastic destroyer in a phenomenal team, but not a creator.”

Paper Round’s view: If anyone should know it's not just about scoring goals in midfield, it's Joey Barton, with just the one to his name so far this season. Suffice it to say this is not Barton's first rodeo in terms of outlandish rebuttals of form; lest we forget, the Burnley midfielder once said Barcelona star striker Neymar was "cat's p***."

Barton is of course entitled to his opinion, but we simply don't agree, and if Chelsea's winning streak continues for another couple of weeks, securing Kante's second successive league title with as many clubs, it'll be increasingly hard to take issue with his pedigree. Barton may have a point about Kante's untested Champions League credentials, but one thing's for sure - they'll be put to the test next season.

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