Paper Round: Man Utd scouting Renato Sanches, Bernardo Silva, Andre Gomes when Portugal play Belgium

Manchester United will be strongly represented on Tuesday night when Portugal take on Belgium in an international friendly in Leiria. The Mirror say the club have sent scouts to monitor three players: "Bernardo Silva, Andre Gomes and Renato Sanches are all expected to start for the hosts against Belgium." And the common denominator? "The three midfielders are all clients of super agent Jorge Mendes". Sanches has been repeatedly linked with United after bursting onto the scene with Benfica, Silva is a playmaker who stars for Monaco and Gomes plays for Valencia.

Paper Round's view: Given the influence Mendes seems to wield at United, and the fact Jose Mourinho will almost certainly be arriving at Old Trafford in time for next season, this seems distinctly likely. Mendes does regular business with Ed Woodward and it would be no surprise if he were steering United's recruitment drive in the direction of his clients.

Wayne Rooney is under serious pressure to keep his place in Roy Hodgson’s first-choice England side, reports The Daily Express (and everyone else). The performances of Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy in particular have made it difficult for Roy Hodgson to justify putting the England captain straight back into the first XI for the European Championships, and the England manager was forced to address the issue in his address to the press ahead of tomorrow's game against Netherlands at Wembley. "When he comes back and is fit again he is going to be putting enormous pressure on these players, just as these players have been putting enormous pressure on him," says Hodgson. "That's the situation we are looking forward to."

Paper Round’s view: Naming Wayne Rooney as captain was always likely to be a risk as his career drifts into its latter years, but few could have predicted quite how dramatically Rooney’s form was going to fall off this season. It would have been similarly tricky to predict not one, but three genuine alternatives to Rooney emerging over the last 18 months, but that is the reality that Hodgson has to face going into the Euros. If fit then Rooney should make the squad, but it is hard to justify how he could make the team right now. Harry Kane is a better centre-forward than this version of Rooney, Jamie Vardy offers far greater pace and intensity, and Dele Alli is the better link option in the number 10 position. The comments from Hodgson this week suggest that he is more than aware of this, but is letting his captain down gently so that he is still of use for a substitute role at the tournament.

A number of Premier League clubs are interested in signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic, reports The Guardian. Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea have all been linked with moves for the Sweden international striker, and Zlatan has confirmed that there is interest... but insists that no decision has yet been made. Ibrahimovic also told reporters that his agent Mino Raiola is "handling everything regarding my future," and that "a lot of big things will happen this summer".

Paper Round’s view: Zlatan Ibrahimovic will be going to the highest bidder. Given the Premier League’s dominant financial position in world football it seems likely that the Paris Saint-Germain striker will be heading to England, so the big question is: where? Ibrahimovic will be 35 in October, so any club moving for him would be getting a short-term hit rather than a long-term solution. For Arsenal he would appear to be perfect tactically, but totally outside of Arsene Wenger’s usual acquisition model. Chelsea’s new style is unlikely to have need for a player in Zlatan’s mould up top, and the relationship between Pep Guardiola and the striker is beyond repair. So that leaves who? Manchester United. Or Leicester City perhaps...?

Jack Butland has been ruled out of England’s European Championship plans with a broken ankle – says the Daily Star. Butland suffered the injury towards the end of the first-half of England’s 3-2 win in Berlin, and a later scan revealed that he had fractured his ankle. The Stoke City keeper will be out for an estimated three months, also dealing a blow to the Potters’ chances of securing a qualifying spot for the Europa League. Southampton’s Fraser Forster will start in goal for England against Netherlands tomorrow, with Burnley’s Tom Heaton as his back-up.

Paper Round’s view: The injury is a cruel blow to Butland at a point in his career when he was starting to put real pressure on Joe Hart for England’s number one jersey. His hopes of forcing Hart out of the side – or replacing him if he failed to recover from his own injury – are now over, but England are in the fortunate position of having three goalkeepers of a very similar standard. Fraser Forster has, if anything, been the best of the three of late, so it will be interesting to see how he fares in national colours on Tuesday.

Arsenal are confident of signing Portuguese prodigy Domingos Quina from right under the noses of Chelsea – reports The Telegraph. Quina, 16, has been training with the Chelsea academy since the age of 13, but has not committed to a scholarship deal with the west London club and any deal with Arsenal would prevent him signing a professional Chelsea contract. A second striker or advanced midfielder, Quina has impressed in recent games for the Portugal Under-17s against the England U17s.

Paper Round’s view: If Quina does move to Arsenal then it would be a big success for the club’s academy, who have not been able to match Chelsea in recent years. The Blues have essentially stockpiled much of the best young talent in Europe, sending the players out on loan and barely showing any sign of using them in the first team. Quina’s decision not to agree to a scholarship suggests that young players are finally coming to the realisation that Chelsea may not be the best place for them to achieve their dreams, and if he does opt to move to Arsenal then that could open the floodgates.