Raheem Sterling has been discussing his England aspirations, while on the rumour front, the conversation surrounding City’s reported interest in Joao Felix and Matthijs de Ligt continues.
The Sun claim Pep Guardiola’s side now lead the race to sign Felix, who could make his Portugal debut this week.
Writes Ian Tuckey: “Manchester City have leapfrogged neighbours United and Real Madrid in the hunt for Joao Felix with a £106million bid to trigger his Benfica release clause.
“Benfica are in a strong position as European giants queue up for the 19-year-old.
“But City’s reported bid eclipses an £80m offer from Real.”
Elsewhere, rumours regarding de Ligt’s future continue to rumble on.
The Daily Star carry quotes from Duncan Castles, who suggests that at one time his current club Ajax expected the defender to switch to the blue half of Manchester.
Castles said: “We also have Manchester City in the equation, in that Manchester City have a strong interest in De Ligt. They’ve been monitoring him for a long time.
“Ajax at one point this season thought City were the most likely club to buy him.
“I think Raiola will continue to work on that to see what money he can get on offer from City to do that deal, and then pose the decision to the player as to where he eventually goes.”
Meanwhile, Sterling has declared it’s time for England to arrive at tournaments with a clear intention to win.
Speaking ahead of the Nations League, the forward told the Mirror: “To lift a trophy with England, I would love that. We’ve all got to look at that and do our best to try to win. It’s as simple as that.
“We need to leave that mentality behind — the whole ‘see how it goes’ thing. Nowadays, with our mentality, the talent we have on our team, we have to go to look to win things.”
In women’s football, City’s Megan Campbell has called on more of her Republic of Ireland team-mates to take the step into the professional game if they want to qualify for major international tournaments.
The Irish Independent has the story, with Campbell saying: “I think that can only stand to us as a national team.
“You’re experiencing football at a higher level, you’re training at a higher level, your fitness is going to be a lot better and I think overall it can only then mean when we come together as a team, we’ll be better on the pitch.”
That’s all for today, but we’ll be back with more paper talk at the same time tomorrow.
