Last Summer saw Manchester City take full advantage of Arsenal’s inability to tie Samir Nasri down to a long term contract, and it appears history may be about to repeat itself with Robin Van Persie making the switch from North London to Eastlands.
Van Persie, like Nasri before him, has only one year left on his Arsenal contract and The Mail Online suggest that Manchester City are ready to offer the Dutchman up to £220,000 a week to make the move north.
While Mancini is open with his admiration for Van Persie The Mail quote Mancini as believing he will remain a Gunner next season,
‘I think Van Persie at this moment is one of the best strikers in Europe with (Lionel) Messi, (Cristiano) Ronaldo and with Sergio (Aguero) and Mario (Balotelli). He is a fantastic striker, but I think he will sign a new contract at Arsenal, because if Arsenal also lose Van Persie they will have a big problem.’
It seems Arsene Wenger shares Mancini’s view that losing the Premiership’s current top scorer would pose a huge problem at the Emirates. The arrival of Lukas Podolski at Arsenal highlights the Arsenal managers desire to persuade Van Persie to stay by demonstrating his desire for Arsenal to continue to compete at the highest level.
One obstacle for City may be the fee of £25 million fee Arsenal are rumoured to be asking for a man in the final year of his contract (Source: The Mail ) While the issue of money may not strike people as a prevalent concern for cash rich City UEFA’S financial fair play rules mean that it may soon have to be. Van Persie’s inflated transfer tag in addition to his huge wages would dramatically limit City’s ability to bring in other transfer targets in areas of the field where reinforcements are more urgently needed. This could lead Mancini and co to consider waiting for Van Persie’s contract to run out and avoid having to pay Arsenal anything.
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