Paper Round: Lionel Messi set for free trip to Manchester City

The Sun reports that troubled Liga giants Barcelona are set to lose the second star of their previous MSN triumvirate – but not for another year. According to the newspaper Lionel Messi’s father Jorge met with Manchester City’s director of football, Txiki Begiristain – a one-time employee of Barcelona FC – to discuss the 30-year-old’s future, with the possibility of a free transfer next summer after the striker’s contract expires.

Paper Round’s view: Stranger things have happened to aging superstars looking to reunite with former bosses in the twilight years of their career – just look at Zlatan Ibrahimovic last year (though admittedly he does have a few years on Messi). Messi’s dad may well have met with City’s representatives, nonetheless a year is a long time in football.

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Not content with being linked to Jamie Vardy in Wednesday’s reports, Chelsea were said to be targeting a trio of English talent on Thursday. According to reports, The Blues hope that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will tell his Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger that he hopes to leave the club for Stamford Bridge on Thursday – for a fee of £35 million, no less.

Further reports on Thursday suggest Danny Drinkwater is the second of the club’s targets, for whom they have allegedly upped their offer to £32 million. However, the newspaper reports that Leicester have valued their midfielder at £40m and are set to play hard-ball, in the absence of a buy-out clause in the 27-year-old’s contract. The third name on the list is Everton's Ross Barkley, 23, who has been repeatedly linked with the club over the summer.

Paper Round’s view: We can’t help but feel slightly under-whelmed by the prospect of Drinkwater and Barkley at Chelsea after the suggestion of Messi at Man City. As for Oxlade-Chamberlain, he could be another Arsenal player leaving for free at the end of the season if Wenger keeps hold of him, and it wouldn’t be the first time an Arsenal player’s head has been turned by their West London rivals.

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Everton boss Ronald Koeman has hit out at the Premier League’s treatment of Europa League fixtures as his team hope for glory against Hajduk Split on Thursday. After their 1-1 draw at the Etihad against Man City on Monday, the Toffees are due to face the Croatian team just three days later in their Europa League play-off, before meeting Chelsea in West London on Saturday. Koeman said of his team’s 3500 mile round-trip on Wednesday evening: “Maybe they don’t care enough about European football. We understand TV money decides a lot when it comes to arranging kick-offs.”

Paper Round’s view: Thank God someone’s started talking about the fixture pile-up already. I was wondering when the chat about this would start and two weeks into the season sounds reasonable, right? Though, in fairness, three games – let alone away games – in less than seven days does seem excessive. It’s almost as if football’s governing bodies work in silos and frequently fail to work together for the greater good of the game. Oh, no, hang on.

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