Manchester United set to miss out on Alex Telles - Paper Round

Manchester United will wait a year for Alex Telles while Charlie McNeill makes the switch to them now, James Tarkowski will stay, and Mesut Ozil has a chance.

Manchester United have been set a deadline over the potential signing of Alex Telles by his current club Porto. The Portuguese side have said that a deal needs to be concluded by this Saturday, according to the Daily Telegraph. Porto want €20m for the 27-year-old Brazilian left-back, while United would like to spend less given he has a year left on his contract.

Paper Round’s view: Watching United manage to flounder in the face of an eminently achievable transfer is no surprise. Ed Woodward has lost a long list of players because he is not willing to spend a few million more. That would be fine if he didn’t then have to put right his mistakes by making huge outlays in future transfer windows to rescue his side’s lack of progress.

Burnley manager Sean Dyche believes that central defender James Tarkowski will stay beyond this transfer window. The 27-year-old has attracted interest from West Ham and Leicester City but both clubs appear to have dropped their interest. The Mail reports Dyche as saying: “He's a player who continues to develop and unless I'm told differently by the powers that be at the club he will be here. He's certainly not part of that group that we think is going to leave.”

Paper Round’s view: Burnley have no need to sell given they are a well run club without too many financial demands. If they do sell Tarkowski then they will need to receive a hefty sum, believed to be around £50 million. At 27, the player may want to make a move to a bigger club soon in order to play regular Champions League football and establish himself on the international stage.

Manchester United have signed 17-year-old striker Charlie McNeill from Manchester City. The Sun reports that the teenager has been prolific at youth level, scoring over 600 goals already. Juventus and RB Leipzig had been linked with a move for the player but he has ultimately decided to move across the city to United, where he used to play.

Paper Round’s view: McNeill might be an exceptional talent for the future, but there is only a good reason to focus on the long term if you can bring players like this into a winning side. It makes their assimilation into top-level football far easier, but instead it seems as if United are trying to do everything on the cheap and failing to back their manager when he needs immediate transfer support.

The Mirror surprisingly reports that Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil could find his way back into the first team. It seems as if the 31-year-old German playmaker going to see out the last year of his contract at the club, and Mikel Arteta has admitted: "Whoever is here, get the best out of him and the contribution that this player can make to the team."

Paper Round’s view: Ozil’s enormous contract was important as a statement of intent when it looked as if the club was in disarray, but now it has come back to bite them. Football has moved on and the player is too slow to make an impact at the top of the league. But that doesn’t mean that he can’t make the difference over the course of the season, and Arteta would do well to reintegrate him.