Football news - Paper Round: Spurs stars fear for Kane's future after Chelsea defeat

Tottenham Hotspur’s squad are concerned that a lack of trophies will see Harry Kane leave the club. The Telegraph reports that, following the defeat to Chelsea, his reaction suggests he will not put up with missing out on trophies much longer. Daniel Levy is not expected to sell him this season, but in 2020 he will be 27 and perhaps prepared to call time on his Spurs career.

Paper Round’s view: Kane has given more time to Spurs than other players would do in a similar position. Manchester United have been in crisis for essentially his entire Spurs career and they have still managed a League Cup, the FA Cup and the Europa League, while the supposedly excellent Mauricio Pochettino has failed to deliver. That is an unusual circumstance, but won’t help Kane feel the club are going in the right direction.

Manchester United’s board are changing their minds on the future of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at the club. His record of 12 wins from 15 has prompted the board to delay plans to look elsewhere for potential managers. They had identified Juventus manager Max Allegri and Spurs’ Mauricio Pochettino as candidates for the role, but the expense of signing them compared to Solskjaer has given them another reason to stick with the Norwegian.

Paper Round’s view: Finding the right manager is no easy task. Bringing in Allegri or Pochettino had seemed like a sensible option before Solskjaer had done so well. With the slim chances of recreating such a feel-good factor by changing managers in such quick succession, Ed Woodward and others might not wish to tinker with a system that appears to be performing well enough.

Chelsea are planning on offering Willy Caballero a new deal, under one proviso. Cabellero’s reaction to the Kepa Arrizabalaga nonsense from last week has impressed those in the club and they want the 37-year-old to stay on for one more season, at least. The Telegraph say that there could be one difficulty: the departure of Gary Cahill, Danny Drinkwater, Victor Moses and Robert Green all mean that he could be jettisoned in favour of a player who qualifies as home grown.

Paper Round’s view: Chelsea’s youth system and transfer ban might mean that the club will promote from within at the end of the season, in ways they might not otherwise have planned to. That could be an easy solution for a club who often seem to struggle to match their squad to the requirements of whoever is in charge.

It appears that Gareth Bale is coming to the end of his time at Real Madrid. Spanish paper AS claims that Real’s president Florentino Perez believes only a remarkable run of form in the next few weeks will be able to save him, with his closest advisors saying, “the Welsh forward is living on borrowed time.” The paper claims that a lack of positive attitude has put him off keeping Bale on for any longer.

Paper Round’s view: Depending on the asking price that Perez demands, the chances of him not finding a new club are slim. He has been linked with Manchester United and Chelsea, and former club Spurs might enjoy bringing him back to celebrate their return to North London in their first full season with a new stadium.