Football news, transfer rumours and gossip - Barcelona to wait for August 'to sign Lautaro Martinez'

Spanish newspaper Marca reports that Barcelona are prepared to wait for Inter Milan’s striker Lautaro Martinez. The player has a €111 million release clause that expires at the end of July, and Inter are refusing to budge. However Barcelona will come back once the clause is obsolete in the hope of negotiating a lower fee due to the impact of coronavirus on football clubs.

Paper Round’s view: This seems an optimistic interpretation by Marca, Barcelona, or both. Just because the fee is negotiable post-July it does not mean that Inter are any more likely to budge. However, they may use the extra time to put pressure on the Italian club in the hope that the 22-year-old striker will use his own force to find a way out of the side.

The FA Cup final is still set to go ahead, according to the Sunday Mirror. The event is due to take place on 1 August 2020, and because of its 90,000 capacity there may be the chance to allow 10,000 fans from each club to attend while maintaining social distancing constraints. It would depend on the ‘R’ number dropping below 0.5 for the safety of fans not to be unreasonably compromised.

Paper Round’s view: The more research is done the more it seems that outside events pose a much smaller risk that going into an enclosed space. It is entirely possible to see that fans who are provided sufficient space would not be in too much danger, and it would also allow the authorities to learn lessons as more and more fans are looking to come back to the sport.

Anthony Joshua has refused to take part in a bout against Mike Tyson, reports the Sun on Sunday. The 53-year-old boxer has talked up his desire to mount a comeback, but Joshua said: “With all due respect I wouldn’t. Even if I fought Iron Mike and beat him, I think I’d be the only one cheering. People would boo. He is a legend. He is the greatest boxer of the modern era. There are only two recognised champions the world knows of, Ali and Mike Tyson — the most recognised faces in the world when it comes to boxing.”

Paper Round’s view: At 53, Tyson would still be a terrifying opponent for almost anyone on the Earth, but the lack of recent experience coupled with the inevitable decline in his abilities mean that he would probably struggle to compete at the top end of boxing again - it may not be possible for him to gain approval to box professionally and safely.

The bottom six clubs in the Premier League are to oppose the idea of points-per-game to be a factor in deciding relegation should Project Restart have to be abandoned. The Sunday Telegraph reports that while nothing is yet agreed, there will have to be a plan in place before the season gets back underway in order to provide a solution to a possible cancellation of the season.

Paper Round’s view: Points-per-game is a superficially reasonable metric to decide on relegation if any decision has to be made, but it is not fair because all clubs will not have had the same difficulty across their games until the season is fully played out. It would be fairest to abandon relegation for this season and start again, but presumably that is too logistically difficult for next season to support.