Paper Round: Lionel Messi set for free-trip to Manchester City

It's Thursday's Paper Round. Lionel Messi's dad has apparently met with representatives of Manchester City to discuss the striker's future.

City to hold Messi talks

The Sun reports that troubled Liga giants Barcelona are set to lose the second star of their previous MSN triumvirate – but not for another year. According to the newspaper Lionel Messi’s father Jorge met with Manchester City’s director of football, Txiki Begiristain – a one-time employee of Barcelona FC – to discuss the 30-year-old’s future, with the possibility of a free transfer next summer after the striker’s contract expires.

Our view: Neymar's move to PSG has everyone know that any is possible. Barcelona currently look like a team in crisis both on the pitch and management. With just a year to run on his Barcelona contract, Messi holds the negotiating power and for Barcelona to avoid a Neymar type of loss, they have to step up and do what is right. Like Pep said, someone is going to pay messi's buyout clause someday. 

Chelsea target English trio

Not content with being linked to Jamie Vardy in Wednesday’s reports, Chelsea were said to be targeting a trio of England talent on Thursday. According to reports, The Blues hope that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will tell his Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger that he hopes to leave the club for Stamford Bridge on Thursday – for a fee of £35 million, no less.

Further reports on Thursday suggest Danny Drinkwater is the second of the club’s targets, for whom they have allegedly upped their offer to £32 million. However, the newspaper reports that Leicester have valued their midfielder at £40m and are set to play hard-ball, in the absence of a buy-out clause in the 27-year-old’s contract. The third name on the list is Everton's Ross Barkley, 23, who has been repeatedly linked with the club over the summer.

 

Our view: The transfer window close in seven days and Chelsea are still to strengthen their thin squad. The three targets named above seems buyable but not on the cheap. Chamberlain looks the most difficult of all due to the fact that Wenger wants to retain the midfielder and also because he wouldn't want to strengthen a rival. Either he goes for a huge fee or he remains and see out his contract. For Drinkwater and Barkley of which the later looks the most easy, all Chelsea have to do is pay the asking price and the players are theirs.

Koeman sees red over fixture pile-up

Everton boss Ronald Koeman has hit out at the Premier League’s treatment of Europa League fixtures as his team hope for glory against Hajduk Split on Thursday. After their 1-1 draw at the Etihad against Man City on Monday. The Toffees are due to face the Croatian team just three days later in their Europa League playoff, before meeting Chelsea in West London on Saturday. Koeman said of his team’s 3500 mile round-trip on Wednesday evening: “Maybe they don’t care enough about European football. We understand TV money decides a lot when it comes to arranging kick-offs.”

Our view: Who is the clown behind this weird fixture? Three games in six days? That's ridiculous. This may not be far from why English teams struggle in European competitions. Someone has to do something about these kinds of fixtures if they want the English teams to do well in Europe and locally.