Paper Round: Raphael Varane snubs Jose Mourinho's Manchester United offer

Real Madrid's Raphael Varane has knocked back an offer from Jose Mourinho, according to the Sun. The report says the France international was unwilling to move to United after Mourinho personally phoned the star and offered to double his wages. Instead of taking United's new £165,000-a-week deal, he's sought to stay at the Bernabeu under manager Zinedine Zidane. Despite falling behind Sergio Ramos and Pepe in Madrid's preferred defensive paring, Varane wants to stay and fight for his spot at the club.

Paper Round's view: The interest shows that Daley Blind has not entirely convinced Jose Mourinho of his talents in defence, with Mourinho's ideal partnership being someone else and Eric Bailly. It will be interesting to see whether United can snare another defender in the winter transfer window, as they've had fitness issues in previous seasons and the squad is short on depth.

AC Milan have rejected Chelsea's bid for Alessio Romagnoli, according to the Sun. The report says that AC Milan have told the London club that the 21-year-old prized defender is not for sale at any price, as they turned down a £35 million bid for his services. Romagnoli signed last summer for Milan from Roma for £21.2m, with Antonio Conte supremely interested in the highly-rated youngster despite being told by Milan there will be no further negotiations for the player.

Paper Round's view: Time is ticking for Chelsea to secure a central defender, and their title hopes possibly hinge on getting reinforcements in that position. Conte wants his defence to keep playing a high line, but it will end in tears if it's the aging John Terry and Gary Cahill, who lack the speed to implement such a tactic.

Joe Hart is willing to take a pay cut to get Liverpool interested in his services, according to the Sun. The report says that the departing Manchester City goalkeeper is willing to take a significant pay-cut from his £150k-a-week wages to get Jurgen Klopp's interest, as it's been said that Everton are no longer interested in signing Hart. With Claudio Bravo officially moving to City and Hart's hopes of moving elsewhere in the Premier League slim due to his high wages, he risks being stuck on the bench for City.

Paper Round's view: It's a continuing issue for Manchester City, with Guardiola unable to move on his unwanted players due to their high wages. One of the problems for clubs going forward with all the wage inflation in the league, will be moving on players that don't work out because the purchasing club can't match their wages. Liverpool's current mess with Mario Balotelli is an example of this, with clubs stuck with deadweight because of their failed business from previous windows.

Everton are showing interest in Manolo Gabbiadini, according to the Daily Mail. The report says that Napoli want interested parties Everton and Fiorentina to pay £30m for his signature, as Fiorentina have tried to discuss a swap deal involving Nikola Kalinic for the striker. The player's agent has flown to Merseyside to have talks with Everton, as the club appear to be beaten to Deportivo La Coruna's Lucas Perez by Arsenal.

Paper Round's view: Gabbiadini would be a good addition to the Everton squad this season, if it wasn't for the absurdly high transfer fee. Romelu Lukaku's future beyond this season is still up in the air, and you'd think Everton would want to invest in a player with a higher potential ceiling for that kind of money.