MANCHESTER — Roberto Mancini has had a major bust-up with his Manchester City bosses over their failure to land Robin van Persie (RVP).
City manager Mancini is on the warpath and has urged the club’s hierarchy to back him and not chief football administrator Brian Marwood in what has become a standoff between the two men.
Marwood is determined to offload players — including Emmanuel Adebayor, Carlos Tevez, Roque Santa Cruz and Edin Dzeko — before going for Arsenal striker van Persie, and is stressing the need to balance the books and prepare for the new Financial Fair Play rules.
RVP is tipped for a move this summer after announcing he would not extend his Gunners contract, which expires at the end of the coming season.
He is understood to prefer a move to Italian champions Juventus or City’s great rivals Manchester United, and a furious Mancini believes that is because the Premier League champs have not tried hard enough to land the Dutchman.
It has left Juventus and United further ahead of City in the race to sign van Persie, with the Italians indicating they are prepared to pay the £20m Arsenal say is RVP’s minimum price after having an initial bid turned down.
Juve have also offered RVP £190 000-a-week after tax and have held talks with the Arsenal captain’s agent, Kees Vos.
The Gunners are understood to be bracing themselves for a new bid from United, after knocking back their opening gambit of around £12m.
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Mancini is in a strong bargaining position, having recently signed a new five-year contract with the club he led to the title in May.
Arsenal are holding firm on RVP and will not sell for anything less than £20m.
That is likely to be a major sticking point for the three interested clubs as the striker turns 29 next month, is into the final year of his deal and has a poor injury record.
RVP has missed Arsenal’s pre-season tour of Asia, but Gunners boss Arsene Wenger insists that the club are still determined to make him see out the final year of his contract.
Arsenal, meanwhile,are closing in on Malaga’s Spain international Santi Cazorla, who tops their list of potential signings to replace RVP.
Like RVP, Arsenal’s Danish striker Nicklas Bendtner has also stayed behind from their pre-season trip to Asia and is having talks with Turkey’s Galatasaray over a £7m move. Italy’s AC Milan are also watching developments.
