Paper Round: Kylian Mbappe rejects Manchester United, Arsenal look to Barca star

AS Monaco’s 18-year-old wonder kid Kylian Mbappe has rejected a move to Manchester United - The Sun report, based on a story run by a Spanish radio station. According to the newspaper, United made a whopping £69 million bid for the forward, which they are hoping to partly fund via the prospective sale of Anthony Martial, and were apparently the first club to throw their hat into the ring for the youngster. However, the newspaper suggests Monaco could demand as much as £129 million for him.

Paper Round’s view: Of course it was Martial who broke the records as the most expensive teenage signing when he was bought by United for £36 million at the tender age of 19, also from Monaco, and that worked out well. No, hang on.

This seems like an awful lot of money to spend on an 18-year-old, and we’re not sure we (no pun intended) buy it. Nonetheless, Mbappe won’t be short of offers come the transfer window, and he’d clearly be wise to wait out any offer from United until they can guarantee Champions League football next season. And even if they do… Perhaps he should talk to one of Mourinho’s 49 academy players before he races to sign with United.

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The Sun add that Chelsea were due to send scouts to monitor Germany international Antonio Rudiger at his team’s friendly against England in Dortmund on Wednesday night.

The 24-year-old Roma defender is rumoured to be a target of Manchester City and Manchester United, and has been much linked with a move to the Premier League after enduring racist abuse in the Serie A this season. The Sun says Chelsea will look to bag Rudiger with an offer worth £30 million.

Paper Round’s view: Chelsea have been heavily dependent on a few members of their squad in defence this season. Though it’s clearly done them absolutely no harm, with the additional pressures of the Champions League (unless something goes very badly wrong for them in their last 10 games of the season) and some likely absences next season, it seems wise to look for reinforcements. It’s no secret that Rudiger has been in the west Londoners’ sights for a while.

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With contract negotiations between Arsenal and star players Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez having apparently ground to a halt, as revealed on Wednesday, The Times report that Arsenal are on the lookout for some new talent.

The north Londoners might just have found that, according to the newspaper which says they hope to sign midfielder Arda Turan from Barcelona in the summer. The 30-year-old Turkey international could cost £25 million, if the report is to be believed.

Paper Round’s view: OK, Wenger, it’s almost as if the people are talking and you’re no longer listening. And that’s before you refuse to pick up your P45.

Midfielders are nice and all that, but you could really do with a striker – Robin van Persie left a while ago now, and if Sanchez goes you’re in real trouble.

But then maybe it’s not Wenger’s decision to make anymore?

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Pep ‘no fun’ Guardiola continued to live up to his reputation this week after it was reported on Wednesday that the Manchester City manager had banned his players from eating chocolate. In fact all sugary snacks are off the menu at the Etihad, according to reports and will no longer be available for purchase at the club’s training ground.

The move apparently follows the exile of a number of players from the first team when Guardiola joined the club, because he thought they were a little chunkier than he might have liked, and the hiring of *gasps* a nutritionist.

Paper Round’s view: It’s almost as if stories are a little thin on the ground during international week… I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest the concept of ‘clean eating’ is not a new one tio elite athletes.

Manager joins club, has high standards, expects multi-million earning squad to keep themselves in relatively good nick in order to meet said standards – are we all following this? *Yawns*

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