Paper Round: Pep Guardiola cancels Clichy, Sagna and Zabaleta's Man City contract talks

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City clear-out could be set to continue, with no fewer than three of his squad's full-backs facing uncertain futures - according to The Sun. City have halted contract talks with Bacary Sagna, Gael Clichy AND Pablo Zabaleta after Guardiola called on the trio to show him that they are capable of adapting to the club's new style of play. All three of the players are over 30 and City believe that better options may be out there next summer.

Paper Round's view: On the surface this seems like a silly story, but look at the three cases in isolation and it makes more sense. Guardiola is ruthless with how he develops his squads, and the ageing Clichy, Sagna and Zabaleta are all likely to struggle in adapting to Pep's very unusual demands of the full-backs. For now they will be useful players to have in the squad, and he's ensured their commitment by telling them to prove themselves worthy of a lucrative new contract, but don't be surprised if all three are found plying their trade away from the Etihad this time next year.

Paul Scholes says he would rather watch Salford than the Premier League and believes the top English clubs are a long way from being the best around - reports The Daily Mirror. Scholes says he even enjoys watching his son's team more than the English top-flight and suggests he’s not been impressed by a single Premier League match in the last two years.

Paper Round's view: Can we bring back the Paul Scholes who never spoke to the media, please? This intensely negative pundit version of Scholes is tiresome in the extreme. And just imagine being BT Sport, who've spent a lot of money to get Scholes in as a Premier League pundit, only to hear that he couldn't care less about the subject he's supposed to be an expert on.

As ever with Scholes, it's a shame that he's quite so negative, because in the midst of his downbeat rant there are actually a couple of good points. He spoke about England's attitude towards Italian football being incorrectly dismissive, which is true. And he spoke about Juventus, Bayern Munich and the three top Spanish clubs being currently better than anything the Premier League can offer, which is also probably true.

But then he went and ruined it all by naming three Manchester City players as the stars of the league, adding that the Premier League can't attract the game's biggest stars... negating to mention Manchester United's acquisition of Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic this summer (which was certainly a mistake and absolutely nothing to do with bitterness about how United turned their back on his close mate Ryan Giggs).

England manager Sam Allardyce says that Wayne Rooney's experience makes him indispensable to the national team - reports the Daily Express. Big Sam has backed up his comments following England's last-gasp win against Slovakia by explaining that he is attempting to use Rooney's captaincy qualities to inspire the team, while allowing the player a free role to extract the best from his game. Rooney's performance against Slovakia garnered mixed reviews, but Allardyce believes that Rooney played "very, very well."

Paper Round's view: Rooney didn't play "very, very well" against Slovakia. What actually happened was that he played very, very deep; hit lots of very, very floaty passes; and offered very, very little attacking threat. But as easy as it is to mock Big Sam for what looks like a bad selection decision, there is at least some logic to his explanation for giving Rooney the captaincy and a free role. He's attempting to keep his one obvious squad veteran as happy as possible, while also compensating for a lack of midfield quality by giving Rooney the freedom to drop into central areas and dictate play.

It's a nice idea and not completely dissimilar to how Allardyce used Jay-Jay Okocha back in his Bolton heyday. The point on which the tactic falls down, however, is Rooney's inability to actually play effectively in a deep midfield position - something that Jose Mourinho commented on just days into his Manchester United tenure. Rooney should be a No. 10 or nothing for England, and the quicker Allardyce realises that the better.