Paper Round: Chelsea hoping to lure Romelu Lukaku after reports suggest Everton departure

Fresh from the news that Romelu Lukaku has apparently resisted attempts by Everton to keep him on at Goodison Park next season, Wednesday's back pages claim that the 23-year-old Belgium international will now be a target for Chelsea, as Antonio Conte continues to breathe fresh life into the West Londoners.

The announcement comes just a month after super-agent Mino Raiola claimed the league's joint-top goal scorer was committed to the club and until now, Everton had seemed confident of keeping him on, despite his umming and ahhing at the end of last season about whether or not to stay on.

Paper Round’s view: It was pretty obvious Wednesday's back pages would be far from Lukaku-free as soon as the breaking news alert buzzed on our phones this afternoon. Though Tuesday's big story that Lukaku does not intend to stay on at Everton after the end of the season is yet to be confirmed, it's pretty easy to believe - he's simply not going to reach the level he is capable of if he stays on there. Chelsea may be in need of a striker come the season's end if rumours of Diego Costa's departure have any depth, plus he would join a strong Belgian contingent in Thibaut Cortois and Eden Hazard.

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Marcos Rojo drew the ire of the Twittersphere on Tuesday after he escaped punishment for what didn't look a million miles away from the stamp that saw Bournemouth defender Tyrone Mings slapped with a five-match ban last week. While Manchester United were fined for failing to control their players after Ander Herrera was sent off during their FA Cup clash with Chelsea on Monday night, Rojo escaped unpunished. Herrera received his second yellow card for his second blatant foul on Hazard, with players then surrounding referee Michael Oliver. But Hazard was getting stick from all angles it seems, with Rojo appearing to have also stamped on him.

Paper Round’s view: At least Mings found it funny, as his one-word tweet of "Lol” seemed to suggest on Tuesday. It’s often impossible to know whether or not a player intended to do wrong in these situations, though the playback footage of Rojo does look rather suspicious. It would certainly be hard to argue the case that one of the two incidents were a breach of rules and not the other.

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Monday really was the day that just kept giving for Jose Mourinho, if Wednesday’s papers are to be believed. According to reports on Wednesday’s back pages the “Special One” (or, as fans at his ex-club Chelsea decreed, “not special anymore”) had another nightmare on Monday after he arrived with his team at Heathrow to make the solemn, post-defeat trip back to Manchester, but the plane on which they were supposed to be travelling was nowhere to be found. Consequently his team had to take a coach, arriving back in Manchester at around 4am – the same time they got home from Russia after their Europa League clash against Rostov last week.

Paper Round’s view: It’s difficult to feel sorry for Mourinho after his Chelsea-baiting at the post-match press conference. Speaking after his team’s defeat he was quick to remind his critics at Stamford Bridge he’d won the club three league titles, in the face of their jeers on Monday. While it was a display that again made it very much the Mourinho show and reminded everyone just how out of this world the United manager’s ego is, we can’t deny his final fixtures in the run up to the season’s end are an absolute horror show. With matches on Thursday and Sunday this week, we would not have wanted to be the person at customer services on Monday night.

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Team Sky faced fresh criticism on Tuesday night after a written answer to the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee raised more questions about the team doctors’ use of banned substances to treat athletes under Therapeutic Use Exemptions and the "mystery package" hand delivered to Bradley Wiggins during the 2011 Criterium Dauphine.

With huge gaps in the information provided in Team Sky’s response, such as an absence of records of whom received the drugs, how much and when, chair of the committee Damian Collins delivered another damning verdict. He said: “I think the team is obliged to know what is going on – particularly one that has talked about higher standards. It’s a question of good governance and it seems to be lacking.”

Paper Round’s view: We’re almost as confused as Team Sky’s doctors, to be honest. If Team Sky does have some of the answers - for example, they declined to answer which athletes' medical records were missing on the grounds of medical confidentiality - why can’t it at least provide them in private?

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