Paper Round: Spurs prepare Barkley and Isco swoop, Klopp believes Pep deserves more credit

Everton's Ross Barkley is a man in demand and according to The Telegraph Tottenham Hotspur are so worried about missing out on him that they are going to move their summer bid forward to January. Barkley is now in the final 18 months of his contract and both Chelsea and Arsenal are monitoring the situation. This has worried Spurs and might lead to a bid in January, however the player himself would prefer to wait until the summer.

Barkley isn't the only attacking midfielder reportedly attracting Spurs' interest. Manager Mauricio Pochettino remains a huge fan of Real Madrid's Isco according to The Mirror and he failed with a bid over the summer. Having failed to regularly break into Zinedine Zidane's starting XI Spurs reportedly feel like they've got a chance and the player is said to be considering his options.

Paper Round's view: Targeting both Barkley and Isco seems a bit odd, especially given Spurs have Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen and really could use a wide player. However, having said that Paper Round is a huge fan of Isco and would jump at any opportunity to see him playing in the Premier League. Whether either of these deals are actually feasible in January... well that seems highly unlikely.

Read the Telegraph story here and the Mirror story here.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has said that he believes that Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola deserves more credit for choosing to come to the Premier League. Klopp, who managed against Guardiola's Bayern Munich with Borussia Dortmund, said that he believes that Guardiola doesn't get enough credit for the work he has done throughout his career.

Paper Round's view: Oh Jurgen. Jurgen, Jurgen, Jurgen. Don't you realise that you simply can't say things like this. 'Proper football men' will tell you that Guardiola simply had to come, otherwise he would have been nothing more than a fraud. Fortunately Paper Round is not of this ilk and lauds Klopp for speaking out in the defence of a man who is vilified with such bizarre glee in British football.

Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane has insisted that the club are in the title fight, labelling it the toughest race ever with six teams competing. The forward also added in his quotes to the nationals that Spurs have Chelsea are in their sights and are looking to try and be the team who undo Antonio Conte's side when they meet at White Hart Lane in January.

Paper Round's view: This is mostly just making the best out of some fairly standard quotes from Kane. Spurs have dropped points, Chelsea haven't, therefore Spurs need to beat Chelsea and can't have too many more off days. However Kane does raise one interesting point. When was the last time you could argue that six teams could win the title?

West Ham are 'convinced' that Jermain Defoe will return to the club he left in 2004 according to a report from The Mirror. The paper says that even if Defoe does not sign in January they are convinced that he will return in the summer, with Sunderland manager David Moyes "facing a battle" to keep the striker at the club. Moyes has made it clear that Defoe would not be sold but West Ham boss Slaven Bilic was full of praise for the forward in his recent press conference.

Paper Round's view: Paper Round has a lot of time for Slaven Bilic saying that he doesn't want to talk about Defoe as he is someone else's player but then saying that some of his players have told him Defoe's movement is amongst the best in the league. It looks like the game is up for Sunderland with this one, it's hard to see Defoe not moving back to his old club. You have to say with someone like Dimitri Payet in the team Defoe could be an extremely shrewd acquisition for the Hammers.