The strongest line in Saturday's papers comes from Selhurst Park, where Steve Parish has apparently told Liverpool exactly what he thought of their £50m offer for Ismaila Sarr. According to the Daily Mirror, the Crystal Palace chairman's position was that accepting it was "never going to happen".
Palace have spent the last couple of years trying to shake the reputation of a club that sells whenever a bigger one asks nicely. Turning down a fee that size for a winger, and then saying so publicly, is the sort of thing a chairman does when he wants the message to travel.
Price tags and the people who question them
Elsewhere, Bradley Barcola has been told he does not justify what was paid for him. Frank Leboeuf, the former France and Chelsea defender, is quoted in the Daily Star saying the £123m attached to Barcola does not match what he produces. It is a familiar sort of verdict from a pundit about a forward whose fee arrived before his consistency did.
There is a related story at Old Trafford, where a German newspaper report carried by the Daily Mirror says JJ Gabriel "will definitely leave United" and will be gone by next summer at the latest. Gabriel is 15 and has asked to go, and Michael Carrick has already urged the club to be careful about how they handle him. Whatever the legal position, a teenager that young becoming a transfer story is its own kind of warning.
Martinelli chose Saudi Arabia over Europe
Gabriel Martinelli's move from Arsenal to Al-Hilal was completed earlier this month for £60m, and his representative has now told The Sun the Brazilian turned down approaches from the Premier League, Italy and Germany before agreeing to it. That is the part clubs in Europe will be reading twice.
Manchester United have better news on Joshua Zirkzee, who has been called into the Netherlands squad as a replacement for the injured Brian Brobbey, according to the Daily Mirror. At Real Madrid, The Sun reports the club may adjust how they do business in the market to accommodate Jose Mourinho's request for a new central midfielder.
North and beyond
Celtic have an injury to deal with: Yang Hyun-Jun picked up a hamstring problem on international duty with South Korea, the Scottish Sun reports. The same paper has Sebastien Pocognoli admitting before his first match as Scotland manager that he would need to keep his emotions under control in Slovenia.
The strangest item belongs to the Daily Mail, which reports that Roberto Carlos has said he lost 99 per cent of the £133m he earned as a player, with problems involving a former agent and a family member. And in the category of unexpected second careers, The Sun notes that Hatem Ben Arfa, once of Newcastle, is now rated among the better padel players in France.
Gossip round-up: Stories in this article are drawn from Saturday's national newspapers as collated in Sky Sports' Paper Talk, dated 26 September 2026. Sources named where reported: Daily Mirror, Daily Star, The Sun, Daily Mail and the Scottish Sun. None of these reports has been confirmed by the clubs involved.
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