Manchester City to raise £70m to help fund double Harry Kane and Jack Grealish transfer - Paper Round

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City are ready to offer up fringe players to the market in order to secure the funds to buy both Harry Kane and Jack Grealish. They are aiming to raise £70 million by letting go some of their young talent unable to break through into the first team, including Jack Harrison, Pedro Porro, Lukas Nmecha, Yangel Herrera,, Ivan Iic, and Morgan Rogers, according to the Mail.

Paper Round’s view: If City are going to pretend to care about financial fair play then by selling a load of younger players they will be able to pad out the bottom line with a healthy culling of their bloated squad. Both Kane and Grealish would make them even better in the league and would add depth for them to finally challenge in the Champions League and take a trophy home. We suspect they already have some cash in the bank because £70m isn't going to get them very far with these two...

Spanish newspaper Marca claim that Real Madrid have offered central defender Raphael Varane a raise on his 5.5m euro salary to extend a contract that is due to expire in 2022. The Frenchman is keen to try something new after a decade in the Spanish capital, and both Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain could offer him seriously improved wages.

Paper Round’s view: Understandably, Real do not want to lose Varane this summer if Sergio Ramos departs on a free transfer. By making sure they do not lose Varane on a free transfer they would be better prepared to secure a long-term replacement this summer, but Real are financially constrained and they might not have any easy way through the transfer window.

Fabio Paratici’s arrival at Spurs has yet to be confirmed, but the Telegraph reports that the Italian is now crucial to the managerial appointment after Erik ten Hag, Antonio Conte, Hansi Flick, Julian Nagelsmann and Mauricio Pochettino all seem set to start next season elsewhere. The next candidate on the list is Roberto Martinez, with nobody else mentioned by the paper.

Paper Round’s view: Paratici will have his work cut out. Daniel Levy is not a profligate man in the market, so that will reduce his options in the transfer market and make it harder to appoint an ambitious manager. However, with the financial security of the club stronger than many others due to the coronavirus, they could still improve over the summer as others tread water.

Arsenal’s England international Ainsley Maitland-Niles is keen to know where he stands for next season. The 23-year-old utility man spent the last half of the season on loan at West Brom, and the Mirror reports him saying: “The main thing that’s needed is clarity. You need clarity for both parties or however many parties are involved, you just need clarity. Once that stuff is worked out, everything else will follow from there.”

Paper Round’s view: Maitland-Niles seems like the kind of player who would hold down a squad place in almost any team except for the very best. Unfortunately for him he probably won’t get regular game time unless he steps down the ladder and starts to get more experience. At 23 he can’t afford to waste any more time and fail to make the most of his talent.