Paper Round: Manchester United ready to outbid City in Alexis Sanchez coup

Jose Mourinho will apparently snatch Arsenal ‘wantaway’ Alexis Sanchez from under his city rivals’ noses according to The Sun. The newspaper reports on Wednesday that after Arsenal rejected a £60m bid by City for the 28-year-old this summer, with the star set to become a free agent next year, United could unofficially agree a deal before then, with a figure of £25m cited.

Paper Round’s view: It’s becoming increasingly difficult to care where Sanchez ends up, not least after he gets caught out smirking at his team-mates’ failures. Perhaps it’s that attitude and the fact that another team may now land him for peanuts that suggests Arsene Wenger was wrong not to just do the deal in the summer. Hard to imagine Wenger wanting to lose Sanchez to Mourinho, but as the report rightly points out, there will be precious little he can do about it, now.

[Read the full story]

***

The Daily Mail runs an exclusive on Wednesday that Chelsea are being investigated for the third time in eight years over breaching regulations regarding youth signings. According to the newspaper, the football's world governing body has confirmed the inquiry into Chelsea’s conduct with regards to signing under-18s but declined to comment further on the ongoing investigation. Chelsea says they comply with “all FIFA statues and regulations when recruiting players.”

Paper round’s view: Chelsea will be hoping nothing comes of this, particularly in light of Atletico Madrid’s transfer ban following accusations of impropriety relating to signing minors. However, they wouldn’t be the first Premier League club to fall foul of FIFA’s rules on youth signings with both Liverpool and Manchester City landing themselves in hot water, recently.

[Read the full story]

The Mirror’s back page gets all excited about Ferguson v Wenger take two, on Wednesday, harking back to one of football’s greatest rivalries, back when Arsenal could still challenge for league supremacy. Sir Alex’s son Darren Ferguson has apparently looked to his old dad for advice on how to get the better of Arsenal as they prepare to meet his team Doncaster, in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday. But there’s not as much animosity between Wenger and Ferguson Snr as you might expect, according to the young pretender. Ferguson Jnr said: “There is an enormous amount of respect between my dad and Arsene Wenger.”

Paper Round’s view: Look, we’re less bothered about respect when there’s potentially a face full o’ pepperoni at stake, perhaps the zenith of the long-running rivalry. Unless Darren and his Donny lads are prepared to stage “Pizzagate” take two, we’re not too interested in a Carabao Cup tie between a league one side and Arsenal’s under-14s. Though probably a bit quick to dismiss this, after all, there’s some attainable silverware up for grabs here, right Arsene?

[Read the full story here]

***

A number of Wednesday’s back pages run a story on a Manchester United fan chant about new striker Romelu Lukaku, flagged up by anti-discrimination campaign group Kick It Out on the grounds that it is racist. The chant, which refers to the size of Lukaku’s penis, was criticised by the organisation for reinforcing racist stereotypes. The Times reports on Wednesday that the Football Association has now asked the club to outline what steps they are taking to prevent fans singing the offending lyrics.

Paper Round’s view: You do sometimes wonder what year football fans are living in - it’s unthinkable it wouldn’t have occurred to anyone that this particular song was, indeed, on the racist side. The FA are right to get involved and, in light of recent claims about racism in the women’s national team, they will no doubt be keen to show zero-tolerance where accusations of discrimination are made.

[Read the full story here]