From the Back Pages, August 22: Liverpool have £16m fee for Mario Balotelli accepted by AC Milan

Liverpool have had a £16million bid accepted by AC Milan for Italy striker Mario Balotelli. Balotelli has been offered £90,000-a-week to move to Anfield and the transfer is nearly complete after a ‘positive’ first meeting on Thursday evening. The player’s representatives will meet with Reds executives on Friday morning to thrash out a deal. (Daily Mail)

Football was at the centre of a new racism and sexism scandal last night after two prominent figures were caught up in allegations of improper text-message exchanges. The Women in Football group said it was “gravely concerned” by reports concerning alleged communication between Malky Mackay, the former Cardiff City manager, and Iain Moody, who resigned yesterday from his role as sporting director of Crystal Palace. (The Times)

Louis van Gaal is now working from a transfer B-list after seeing his first-choice targets fail to come off. (The Mirror)

Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti has confirmed that Manchester United target Angel di Maria has rejected a contract renewal with the European champions and has asked to leave the club. (The Independent)

QPR have completed the signing of Napoli forward Eduardo Vargas. (The Express)

Erik Lamela showed a glimpse of his undoubted quality by inspiring Tottenham to an unlikely comeback victory against AEL Limassol, a performance the manager Mauricio Pochettino is confident the club-record signing will start producing with increasing regularity. (The Guardian)

Arsenal manager says he would be keen to sign another defensive midfielder, with Lars Bender, Sami Khedira and William Carvalho considered. (The Telegraph)