Manchester City forward Ferran Torres is ready for surprise Barcelona switch - Paper Round
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Updated 27/11/2021 at 11:01 GMT
Manchester City's Spanish international fancies a switch to Barcelona, while Paris Saint-Germain want to keep hold of Mauricio Pochettino as their manager. Manchester United are set to bring in Ralf Rangnick and the German could choose his permanent replacement at the end of the season. Newcastle are to be prevented from setting up related sponsorship deals.
Ferran Torres.
Image credit: Getty Images
Barcelona target Torres
Barcelona have emerged as suitors of Ferran Torres at Manchester City. Spanish newspaper Marca reports that the 21-year-old Spanish international does not feel he gets enough prominence under Pep Guardiola and his agent was in Spain to discuss a potential move. The major stumbling block is that Barcelona continue to struggle to raise transfer funds.
Paper Round’s view: Torres has been a success at City and so it seems a surprise that he appears ready to move on already. At just 21 perhaps he feels he has the talent and the platform with the Spanish international team to become an automatic first pick for his club side, and there is a space in the Barcelona front line for him to stake a claim for such a thing.
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Leonardo denies managerial changes
Paris Saint-Germain director has no plans to let Mauricio Pochettino leave and has no interest in Zinedine Zidane, reports The Sun. He said: “We don’t want Pochettino to go. He’s never asked to leave and no club has contacted us for him. We have a lot of respect for Zinedine Zidane, what he’s done as a player and a manager. But I can tell you very clearly that there is no contact and no meeting with him took place.”
Paper Round’s view: It is clear that Pochettino would entertain a move back to the Premier League - it has been reported too many times for it to be idle transfer speculation. The end of his contract would make a neat time for that to happen without any controversy, and there is no point in Leonardo stirring up trouble with talk of Zidane, however attractive a candidate he is.
Rangnick to have say in replacement
Ralf Rangnick is due to join Manchester United as the club’s interim boss following the departure of previous manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. The Telegraph runs through some of his potential changes on the training ground, but also says that the experienced German could be kept on to help choose his replacement at the end of his six-month stint in charge of the first team.
Paper Round’s view: United have needed a figure with experience of building a club infrastructure since the departure of Alex Ferguson. The blame rests with Ed Woodward for that continued failure but perhaps his imminent exit is giving other people the chance to exercise some meaningful influence higher up the club. Rangnick has the experience to contribute to such decisions.
Newcastle face continued sponsorship ban
The Daily Mail reports that the Premier League has continued its ban on clubs agreeing sponsorship deals that are agreed between clubs and third-party related entities. The decision is thought to be a way to prevent Saudi Arabia-backed Newcastle United from arranging deals which would funnel funding to them via their owners in order to circumnavigate financial fair play requirements.
Paper Round’s view: The reason to stop Newcastle United establishing themselves with Saudi backers was because the club are now essentially owned by people who are willing to abuse their own citizens and foment civil war in Yemen, amongst many other abuses. Once you’ve decided that the owners are fit and proper, though, limiting their expenditure seems an unreasonable move. It is, in theory, their money to spend how they wish.
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