Juventus could beat Manchester City to signing Arsenal's Robin Van Persie

City will bid around £20 million for Van Persie but Roberto Mancini has been told that he must first ease the wage bill and move on some of his other strikers, creating a small window of opportunity for the Serie A champions. Van Persie, who on Wednesday announced his decision not to sign a new contract at Arsenal, is understood to be interested in the option of playing in Italy, particularly given the resurgence in Europe last season of Italian teams.


Juventus are willing to break their own wage structure by paying Van Persie close to the £200,000-a-week that would be on offer at City, but they will be more reluctant to pay a transfer fee above £15 million. That could create an added dilemma for Arsenal, who would then have the choice of holding Van Persie to his contract for another season, selling to a Premier League rival or accepting a lower fee to allow a move to Italy.

Talks are also progressing over the permanent transfer of Emmanuel Adebayor to Tottenham. Adebayor‘s current contract at City is worth £170,000 a week, but it is understood that Tottenham are ready to make a £4 million upfront payment to the player if he agrees a deal to remain at White Hart Lane until 2016. This would help mitigate his wage cut, although Tottenham would then still also make Adebayor the highest paid player in their history on a deal worth around £110,000 a week. (telegraph.co.uk)