Football news, transfer rumours and gossip - Premier League expected to be completed

The Mirror reports that the Premier League remains on course to be completed. While some clubs are pressing for the cancellation of the season, the majority wish to extend the season’s deadline at next week’s meeting. The current postponement is due to last until the end of April, but that will be extended once again.

Paper Round’s view: The most important thing is that clubs, fans, players and staff are kept safe, but looking abroad to China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan, it is clear that there are ways to return to a more routine way of life. That should allow the Premier League to get back underway, but it may feel impossible as Britain is on the cusp of a spike in cases.

The Telegraph run with a story claiming that Premier League footballers could soon be asked to take a 50% haircut on their salaries as payments from the Premier League are delayed due to coronavirus. A chairman, remaining anonymous, suggested players earning above £15,000 a week will be asked to take huge reductions in their wages to keep clubs afloat.

Paper Round’s view: Clubs are so competitive that very few of them have cash balances that allow them to survive something like this pandemic. Bigger clubs with lines of credit may fare better, and may even be able to take advantage of other sides’ financial weakness in order to secure transfers at bargain prices, as their rivals grow desperate.

Former Liverpool playmaker Philippe Coutinho was reportedly fuming with Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy. The Mail reports that Spurs had agreed a deal with Barcelona for Coutinho as he weighed up Giovani Lo Ceso and Bruno Fernandes as options. Once the terms were settled, Levy then tried to reduce the cost further which led to the move breaking down.

Paper Round’s view: Spurs were interested in Lo Celso and other players, and arranged a deal on the cheap for the Argentine in the end. It is hardly unreasonable that Levy would use several deals at once in order to secure the most favourable terms, though you can understand why Coutinho resents the move by Levy.

Julien Faubert has slammed his former manager Avram Grant. The Sun carries quotes from the Athletic over the Frenchman’s opinion of the erstwhile Chelsea boss, saying: “That guy was so antisocial. He never spoke to us, he barely took charge of the training sessions because he was always in his office, his motivation was sh*t and I didn’t learn anything from him. Time after time and after every game we kept seeing the same problems with very little progress.”

Paper Round’s view: Grant was a poor replacement for Jose Mourinho at Chelsea and failed to impress in his time at West Ham, too. There is obviously little fresh news at the moment which explains why Faubert is being asked his opinion, but nevertheless footballers rarely seem to pass up a chance to settle a score once they feel relaxed.