Paper Round: Wenger 'agrees' on his replacement

Wenger 'agrees' on his Arsenal replacement: Arsene Wenger has already given the green light to Arsenal bosses over Real Madrid assistant Paul Clement replacing him as manager of the north London club at the end of next season, report various papers. Clement has been surprisingly linked with a shock move to the Gunners with the Metro saying that the club's board are keen on hiring the Englishman to replace Wenger as manager at the Emirates. Additional reports in Spain say Wenger is happy with the idea, with Clement considered as the perfect fit to step in and replace the Frenchman at the end of next season.

Paper Round's view: It would be foolhardy to dismiss such a story entirely as Wenger will not carry on at Arsenal forever, but given that he signed a new three-year extension at the club only in May it seems a touch premature. It does, however, make perfect sense for Wenger to have a say in the type of coach who takes on his role given the experience he has of holding the top job at the club. As for Clement, well the 42-year-old has never held a managerial job but has experience coaching at Chelsea, PSG and now Madrid. Is that really enough for him to take one of the biggest jobs in English football without having ever held the top role? It would represent a huge gamble.

United weigh up Toprak move: Manchester United are tracking Bayer Leverkusen defender Omer Toprak, according to the Daily Star. Liverpool and Tottenham are also interested in the £12 million-rated Turkey centre-back and all three clubs ran the rule over him during last week's Champions League win over Zenit. Toprak is one the Bundesliga's best defenders, the report claims, and has earned 23 caps for his country. The 25-year-old's current contract with Leverkusen runs until 2018 but the paper reports the he is eyeing a new challenge and hopeful of sealing a switch to England next summer.

Paper Round's view: Toprak is a class player, but in United's case, his situation in not ideal - Louis van Gaal needs urgent defensive cover in January and cannot wait until the summer for reinforcements. Of course, given United's spending power, they could probably bring in a player in January who is a mere stop-gap solution and still go for Toprak in the summer as a longer-term prospect. Liverpool and Spurs may not have the luxury of being able to do that.

- - -

QPR players don't want Rio back: The Daily Mirror reports that several Queens Park Rangers players are pleased Rio Ferdinand has been banned for three matches - because they believe the side is stronger without him in it. The defender was fined £25,000 and slapped with the ban for using an insulting term in Twitter, leaving him "seething" at what he regards as double standards within the FA, who are expected to take no action against Malky Mackay for exchanging racially insensitive text messages. Ferdinand will now find it difficult to get back into Harry Redknapp's side, who have shown signs of improvement in the past two games without the former Manchester United star.

Paper Round's view: Ferdinand appears destined for a rather ignominious exit from football as he lurches towards a probable retirement in the summer. First the ban (just or not) and now a potential battle to get back into the side and even get the chance to put in another appearance before he hangs up his boots. And, assuming QPR will be battling relegation as the season comes to a close, Redknapp will not be able to throw a sentimental send-off appearance his way, Rio should have called it quits after leaving United.

- - -

Clattenburgupset at axing: Referee and Ed Sheeran fan Mark Clattenburg is "hurt and upset" by his axing by the Premier League this weekend. The Sun has quotes from a friend of the official, who broke two rules last weekend when he had a private telephone conversation with Crystal Palace manager Neil Warnock and drove away from The Hawthorns in his own car to watch a gig in the north-east. The friend said: “Mark is hurt and upset by all of this. He feels like the authorities have taken his legs away. He’ll bounce back, no doubt about it. No one in this country can touch him for refereeing.”

Paper Round's view: Rules and rules and being a referee Clattenburg should know that better than most. Clearly, he's made a major gaffe by talking to a manager on the phone after a game, even if the content of that conversation was entirely innocent. As for the gig, worse crimes have been committed, but again, if referees are supposed to travel on official buses, then Clattenburg should be reprimanded for his failure to do so. He can be as hurt and upset all he likes, but he's stepped out of line and he should realise that.

- - -

Arsenal consider right-back options: Arsenal could move for Sporting Lisbon's Cedric Soares or Stephan Lichtsteiner of Juventus to solve their problem at right-back, according to the Daily Star. With Mathieu Debuchy out with a long-term ankle injury and Carl Jenkinson out on loan at West Ham, the Gunners are short in the right side of defence. Young Hector Bellerin has been called on as Calum Chambers has been playing in the middle to cover for injuries there but Arsene Wenger wants to make a move for either Lichtsteiner or Soares in January. Soares has a release clause of £7m, while Lichtsteiner's contract with Juve ends next summer and he is refusing to sign a new deal.

Paper Round's view: This is an interesting one. Arsenal, if anything, are well-stocked with right-backs, it's just that they're all injured or somewhere else at the moment. What they don't have is a decent amount of quality centre-backs - and this is the area Wenger should be focusing on come January. Perhaps it's easier to ask a right-back to play centre-half than a centre-half to play right-back, but Arsenal's right-sided players will be back soon enough and if they're not careful, they'll end up with four of them. Far better to invest in the middle and provide deeper cover there this January with a more long-term view in mind.

- - -