Premier League clubs will tell ’big six’ to quit over European Super League plans – Paper Round

The front pages of the British press. The front of The Sun, Daily Mail, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, Daily Mirror, i, Daily Star, Daily Express. This just doesn’t happen, normally, and that just about sums up the magnitude of a story which looks set to rumble on and on.

The fact have weighed in on the controversial proposals also explains why this is a crossover story more than worthy of making the front pages, with the UK government vowing to step-in and stop the plans coming to fruition.

The Sun reports that a Premier League meeting on Tuesday will see the 14 clubs not involved in the European Super League plans – all bar Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham – agree that the “big six” will have to leave the league at the end of the season.

The 14 clubs are said to be “angry and dismayed”, and will order the six to quit, with Arsenal, Chelsea, City and United also facing the prospect of being removed from the latter stages of the European competitions.

Meanwhile, even local papers, organisations that rely so heavily on football news and exclusives from their local clubs, have strongly condemned the plans with hard-hitting front pages.

The Manchester Evening News declares “Shame On You” on their front page, asking, “How can you dismiss 140 years of history, the loyalty of millions and the very cornerstones of Manchester?”

The Liverpool Echo criticised Liverpool’s owners for not coming out to back the proposals before Jurgen Klopp faced the cameras himself on Monday night, before and after the draw with Leeds. The paper wrote:

Paper Round’s view: Where do you even start? It is difficult to remember a time when a sporting story has resulted in blanket coverage of both the front and back pages, while it is all the more remarkable given it has managed to unite almost all supporters of virtually every club.

As Klopp and Thomas Tuchel have alluded to, by the very fact they made it clear they were not made aware of the plans beforehand, this is a matter seemingly out of their hands, but while fans may continue to voice their discontent – and they will do so for weeks and months unless this is nipped in the bud – it seems that perhaps only the managers and players of these specific “leading” clubs can truly make it plain to their own owners just how awful an idea this is. James Milner’s comments were the perfect start – now he will need more support.

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Meanwhile, in other football news, Jose Mourinho was sacked by Tottenham on Monday. Multiple papers, including The Sun and Daily Mail, are reporting RB Leipzig’s Julian Nageslmann is the favourite to become the new Spurs boss. Nagelsmann masterminded Leipzig’s Champions League last-16 victory over Tottenham last season, winning 4-0 on aggregate.

Paper Round’s view: If you can’t beat them, get their manager to join you? I suppose that’s how it goes. It will be fascinating to see how Spurs’ recruitment search unravels with the slight distraction of the European Super League. Would it put managers off? Would it entice some more? When could they realistically get a manager in place if it still remains unclear what competitions they are participating in? Plenty of questions, the answers could be some way off.