Paper Round: Diego Costa 'agrees £57m deal' while Manchester United rubbish Marcus Rashford rumours

The Sun reports that itchy-footed striker Diego Costa has agreed a mega-deal with Chelsea to stay on at Stamford Bridge. Speculation over Costa’s future built after the Spanish star was dropped during the January transfer window amid rumours he would sign with a club in the Chinese Super League. However, according to the newspaper, Costa will leapfrog Cesc Fabregas on Chelsea’s salary bill in a five-year deal worth £57m, rising to £65m over the course of the deal including bonuses.

Paper Round’s view: The notion that Costa, 28, would up sticks for the Chinese Super League at this stage in his career has always seemed a little silly to us here at Paper Round. Sure, there’s some serious coin up for grabs, but that’s what being 32 is for, right? And why would he leave Chelsea at a time when they are enjoying Premier League dominance? He wants to get paid more – so pay him. He’s more valuable an asset to Chelsea than Fabregas, so why wouldn’t he earn more than him? Perhaps the more interesting question is: does this put those Alexis Sanchez rumours to bed?

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Manchester United have hit back at reports on Tuesday that Marcus Rashford had delayed signing a new deal with the club. According to the Daily Star, a source at the club said: “It’s absolute nonsense to suggest Marcus wants to leave. I’m sure he’d like to start every single game if he could, but he knows that’s impossible. He’s making good progress under one of the greatest managers of all time and has a massive future ahead of him at United. There’s no chance he would be sold.”

Paper Round’s view: Is he really making progress? Really? Do young players make progress under Jose Mourinho? I don’t know, let’s ask the 49 players on that piece of paper, shall we? Unless Zlatan Ibrahimovic really is the bionic man, one assumes he can’t go on forever, but Mourinho will sign another superstar striker, so maybe the odds are fairly-well stacked against Rashford at United. Perhaps he could leave and come back after re-signing for a new record fee in a couple of years? Sound familiar?

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Antoine Griezmann has spoken out about speculation around his much-rumoured move to Manchester United in the summer. Despite previous claims that United had already agreed a deal for the Atletico Madrid star in principle (and a shirt number to boot) Griezmann told French radio channel RMC he had “a lot of doubts” about a move to England. Specifically, he said: “I have a lot of doubts about my private life [in England]. Everything like rain, bad weather.”

Paper Round’s view: We can’t argue with Griezmann –these both seem like fair complaints (though he did forget to mention English food, which was surely an oversight). Do we think these are the kinds of complaints that would prevent a move to Old Trafford? Time-honoured tradition tells us there’s not usually this much smoke without fire, and here at Paper Round, we’re pretty much sold on the hype around this move. Better get your Souwester out, Griez, you’ve heard the rumours about Manchester, right?

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England manager Gareth Southgate has issued a “stark” warning to his team in an interview with the Telegraph, so says the newspaper on Wednesday. Southgate, who has had a decent if not a little underwhelming start, first as temporary manager after the flash-in-the-pan tenure of Sam Allardyce, has spoken ahead of March’s international fixtures telling the newspaper that the team’s current world ranking of 13th is not good enough. He also apparently told the paper that players should not rest on once-held laurels for a spot in his squad.

Paper Round’s view: Of course, now the interpretations of Southgate’s words will begin – is he talking about Wayne Rooney? Is the captain’s number finally up? Perhaps he means Jamie Vardy, in the face of a miserable season at Leicester, unable to replicate the success of last year? Daniel Sturridge could easily see the axe fall if current form is anything to go by. Who knows? And do half of the squad even want to play?

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