Paper Round: Real Madrid ready to bid £227m for Neymar

Real Madrid are ready to bid £227m for Paris Saint-Germain striker Neymar. The Brazilian striker is reportedly desperate to leave the French capital and return to Spain, and has already met Real’s young Brazilian, Vinicius Junior in order to get to know him better. The Spanish club are optimistic that Neymar has played his last game for PSG.

Paper Round’s view: £227m is an enormous figure, and likely key to the success of any transfer. It will be a blow to PSG’s reputation if they were to lose Neymar so quickly after prising him away from Barcelona, but it would be humiliating if they also had to sell him on the cheap. The figure would represent a small profit, perhaps, for the club, and so they would be well set to pay for Kylian Mbappe’s permanent transfer, and be ready to reinforce with names who do want to play for the club.

Wayne Rooney was yesterday linked with a move to American MLS side DC United, and they are the bookmakers’ favourite to land the former England and Manchester United captain. However, there have emerged other sides who are considering a move for the Everton man. The 32-year-old forward has been linked to Rangers, where former England colleague Steven Gerrard is manager, but a move to new Premier League side Wolves are also mentioned amongst possibilities.

Paper Round’s view: It is hard to see why Rooney would move to Wolves. They have money, but more importantly they are a relatively young side who seem primed to show off Jorge Mendes’ prospects off to the rest of the world. While Rooney has the experience in the Premier League to impress some people, he no longer has the ability or fitness to cut it at the top level, and Wolves would be better off looking elsewhere.

One player that Wolves do look set to miss out on is Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere. It had been unclear whether he would stay at The Emirates as he had only been offered £90,000 a week, plus playing bonuses, instead of his current £110,000-a-week deal. However, with interest from Wolves, Everton, Juventus and AC Milan, Arsenal have offered a new deal which represents a hefty increase in his salary, assuming he is able to stay fit and feature in the first team.

Paper Round’s view: Losing Wilshere would probably be a sensible move, if there were plenty of alternatives in the Arsenal squad. However Santi Cazorla’s future is in doubt, not just at Arsenal, and they are losing Arsene Wenger, too. It makes sense then to keep Wilshere on for what is a relatively low Premier League salary. He has shown much more resilience on the pitch since a hard-fought comeback this season.

Arsenal aren’t stopping at keeping Wilshere. They are also keen to add Bernd Leno, the Bayer Leverkusen goalkeeper, to the squad. Petr Cech could follow Wenger out of the club after a number of high-profile errors this season, and so the London club need a replacement. Leno has a £17.5m release clause, a sum that Arsenal could easily meet. Napoli are also interested, but the 26-year-old has turned down their offers.

Paper Round’s view: Cech has performed admirably for Arsenal at a time they needed a proper, established goalkeeper, but it does seem as if his reflexes have begun to fade. Leno has plenty of experience in the Bundesliga and Champions League, and with Manuel Neuer’s long-term injury, he could nail down a place as the German national team’s preferred number one over the long term.