Paper Round: Arsenal set to stump up £30m in last-gasp bid to keep Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil

In the ongoing saga of the contract negotiations between Arsenal and Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil, the club was reportedly ready to make one final, gold-plated push for the duo. The Mirror reports that with an FA Cup victory in the bag and £30million to spend on the pair alone, the club could secure a two-year extension with Sanchez on a salary of £275,000 a week, while Ozil’s people are said to be playing hardball, looking for £70k more per-week than the £280k already reportedly offered to him by the club.

Arsene Wenger has money to burn, according to a report by the Daily Star, which claimed that the manager would be offered £100m to spend over the summer if he agrees to stay on at the club after an increasingly hostile reception from fans, over the last couple of seasons. Wenger's future was said to be on the cusp of being decided in a board meeting in which chief executive Ivan Gazidis will apparently propose the appointment of a sporting director, a move which Wenger is opposed to.

Paper Round’s view: Sanchez and Ozil’s contracts have overshadowed the entire season, having been going on for well over a year, now. The pair have less than 12 months remaining on their current contracts and are both widely tipped to go over the summer. Wenger is hardly known as a big-spender but without the Champions League next season, he’s going to need to make quite a gesture if he's to keep hold of them. Perhaps if he’d made them an offer they couldn’t refuse 12 months ago, he wouldn’t have found himself ready to pay over the odds for them next season, and might even have had a more successful league finish this year (nor been branded friendless by Tony Adams).

Meanwhile, Wenger may be ready to dip into the club's coffers, but their finishing place in the league could make it increasingly difficult to find quality recipients of all that cash.

[Read the full stories about Wenger's cash injection and the push for Sanchez & Ozil]

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Manchester City were linked with what seemed like every footballer in Europe on Monday night as tales of the club’s much-touted epic summer spending spree gathered pace. Following their swoop for Bernardo Silva at the end of last week, Tuesday’s papers focused on the club’s rumoured interest in Benfica keeper Ederson and Tottenham defender Kyle Walker. Ederson was said to be in Manchester for a medical, subject to the results of which the 23-year-old could be set to become the most expensive goalkeeper of all time in a £35million deal. Elsewhere, Marquinhos and Benjamin Mendy are also linked with moves to the Etihad.

Paper Round’s view: Ederson’s stats are impressive having won the Premier League and FA Cup double with his club twice and keeping 22 clean sheets. Thought of as one of the best young goalkeepers in the world, there would be reason for his record-breaking price-tag, and goalkeepers have been problematic for Pep Guardiola this season. Defence in general has continued to hamper efforts by the club, conceding 39 goals in 38 league games this season. With full-backs Walker and Mendy as well as Paris Saint-Germain’s Marquinhos – previously linked with Manchester United - on the shopping list, Guardiola seems at last to be addressing some of those issues.

[Read the full story here]

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The Sun reports on Tuesday that former-England manager Roy Hodgson may be due to fill the void left by, er, former England manager Sam Allardyce who quit as Crystal Palace boss, last week. Hodgson has been out of managerial work since quitting the England team back in 2016 after a disastrous European Championship campaign, only to be replaced by Allardyce for just 67 days before he was forced to resign. Hodgson, who could become the Eagle’s eighth boss in seven years, was much-criticised after his departure from the national side for lacklustre performances.

Paper Round’s view: Well, it’s certainly reassuring to see two former-England managers on the mediocre club managerial roulette – makes you wonder why Alan Pardew never made his way to that feted role. Far be it from us to sound pessimistic about the national team or Crystal Palace, but though we accept Hodgson has a wide range of managerial experience, we can’t help but wonder if he’s the man to bring the dynamism Palace needs to guide them back to the giddy heights of mid-table obscurity next season.

[Read the full story here]