ContinueThe Robin van Persie transfer has heated up over the last 24 hours, as the Arsenal board prepare to battle for as higher transfer fee as they can get for their want-away captain.
The Gunners have already rejected bids from Juventus, Manchester United and Manchester City since Thursday, as Arsene Wenger looks to get around £20 million for his man.
The Dutch forward, who turns 29 next month, will not travel with the Arsenal squad on their pre-season tour of Asia, but has remained professional in training this week as the latest Arsenal transfer saga begins to unravel.
As stated in the Mirror United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has publicly confirmed his interest in van Persie saying: "Obviously Arsenal have given out the fact that we've made a bid for him. We try to keep business as close as possible to us until the moment we conclude a deal."
However, Ferguson will not be interested in meeting Arsenal’s valuation of the striker as he’s in the final year of his contract and has had a poor injury record over recent years. It's believed that United could push up their offer from £10 million to £15 million, but wouldn’t go higher than the extra £5 million. Juventus have bid around £8 million and Manchester City have offered around £12 million, as these three clubs look to get a world-class player on the cheap.
Arsenal are due to play City in Beijing as part of their tour on July 27 and, embarrassingly, Wenger - who promised not to sell Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas in the same window last year - is in danger of being caught out again.
After Arsenal's mass exodus of stars to Eastlands, which includes Samir Nasri, Gael Clichy, Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure, Wenger said on March 9: "We will not lose anybody to Manchester City."
Those words could come back to haunt Wenger.
Two players Arsenal are hoping to offload are Nicklas Bendtner - who is also set to miss the trip to Asia - and Andrey Arshavin, who is eyeing a last pay-day in the Middle East. There will be plenty of interest in both players, as they both performed for their countries in Euro 2012.
