Paper Round: Mourinho plans United cull, Simeone learning English fuels Chelsea rumours

According to a story in the Daily Mail, Jose Mourinho has already begun imposing demands on Manchester United vice-chairman Ed Woodward over who should be sold if he is to take over as manager. Mourinho has flagged Marouane Fellaini and Juan Mata as two players that would the starting point of the purge if given the job.

Paper Round's view: In all honesty, how Fellaini remains at United remains a mystery to a lot of the football public. He's shown very little of his Everton form and has looked lost. As for Mata, he's a very capable player but his wandering style doesn't fit a Mourinho system - and having offloaded him while at Chelsea, Mourinho is certain to offload him again at Old Trafford.

These two would only be the beginning of many players being culled from the squad - and the elephant in the room is Wayne Rooney. He turns 31 this year, and few men in their early thirties can have as many miles on the clock as the United skipper.

The Sun are reporting the current United playing group are split over the arrival of Mourinho, while also questioning where club favourite and assistant manager Ryan Giggs would end up if the former Chelsea boss brought in his own people - the suggestion being that he would quite likely be offered his choice of coaching the under-16s, joining the janitorial staff or heading to the back of the dole queue in a Mourinho regime. The report suggests there would be a stack of departures under the Portuguese, as many are still unsold on his style of management that saw his undoing at Chelsea.

Paper Round's view: No doubt about it: Mourinho is a divisive figure, but his particular brand of ruthlessness is probably what United need at the minute. They've had too many mediocre performances from those on and off the field. Yes, the complaints are legitimate that things can go pear-shaped eventually, but it would at least bring the club back into that top-four tier.

According to the Metro, Atletico boss Diego Simeone has been reportedly watching films with English subtitles and taking lessons in order to perhaps prepare himself for a move to Chelsea. The report states that club owner Roman Abramovich sees Simeone as Mourinho's "natural successor", but expects Atletico to attempt to veto any chance of Simeone trying to move to the London club.

Paper Round's view: From the way things stand, Simeone seems very unlikely to get the Chelsea job due to Atletico's current transfer ban: everyone at the Madrid club wants to keep things unchanged until it's been worked through to a resolution. Don't doubt the reports of him learning English, but that could as easily be with a view to the long term. The inference that he's the front runner for the Blues job because of this is questionable.

The Guardian are reporting on Liverpool's U-turn on ticket prices, with the club backing down on it's move to up some general admission tickets up to £77. The Fenway Sports Group has instituted a ticket price freeze for the next two seasons and wrote a letter of apology to its fans.

Paper Round's view: Good to see the efforts of Liverpool fans influence some form of change, and hope that all fans across the top divisions of European leagues remain vigilant on this issue.