Paper Round: Cristiano Ronaldo gives Harry Kane go-ahead, Pep Guardiola 'not good enough' for Wigan

Cristiano Ronaldo wants Real Madrid to pursue the signing of Tottenham striker Harry Kane, the Daily Star reports. It’s claimed that with Karim Benzema on his way out of the Bernabeu, Ronaldo has given club president Florentino Perez the green light on bringing Kane to Real. The report, which is taken from Don Balon, also claims Ronaldo is excited by the prospect of playing alongside Kane.

Paper Round’s view: Well, let’s just take this with a pinch of salt, shall we. A player giving the club president the green light over a signing? Sure, it would be all eyes on Ronaldo if another superstar came into the fold, but that does not mean he has the final say on transfers. Nevertheless, if Kane brings home a third Premier League Golden Boot, and goes on to shine in Russia, Spurs may have a fight on their hands this summer.

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Chelsea were not willing to sell Michy Batshuayi permanently to Borussia Dortmund in January, although manager Antonio Conte was willing to let the striker go – the Mirror reports. The striker ended up moving to the German club on loan, with the Chelsea hierarchy adamant that the Belgian has a future at the club. A further indication that Conte's future lies away from Stamford Bridge.

Paper Round's view: Batshuayi is showing great promise at Dortmund, but something must have been amiss for Conte to shun him from first-team opportunities for such a prolonged period. Despite the club's desire to keep him, perhaps he will thrive away from the Bridge, as he is doing right now.

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Ahead of their FA Cup meeting, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola revealed he almost joined Wigan back in 2005, but was not good enough to feature for the then Premier League new boys. Guardiola was a free agent at the time, and was looking to play in England, but he admitted that a move did not materialise. “I was old, really old!” he told reporters. “I knocked on the door, I tried to come here to play in English football, but I was not able.”

Paper Round’s view: A nice light-hearted story going into this replay of the 2013 FA Cup final. Just imagine what could have been. Pep playing at Wigan, retiring, doing his badges and steering the club to glory. We’ll just never know how it could have played out.

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We know, we know - it's not football or transfer-related gossip, but VAR just cannot stay out of the news!

Just hours after squiggly-line-gate stole the show in Manchester United's FA Cup match at Huddersfield, Team GB's women curlers were cursing their luck after their final stone was ruled out against Sweden. It was enough to make the back page of Monday's Mirror, as replays showed skip Eve Muirhead did actually release the stone before the hogline - video technology would have helped GB's cause, but alas, it is not being trialled in curling.

Paper Round's view: Well isn't this a shameless plug to remind you that the Winter Olympics is on Eurosport. Yes, yes it is. Watch it now. It's good. I promise.