Robin van Persie's future took another twist on Monday as Juventus prepared to pull out of the race to sign the Arsenal skipper.
The Holland striker has told the Gunners that he is not ready to sign a new deal as he looks to buy himself time before making a decision on his future.
Manchester City and Juve are the only two clubs who have shown a concrete interest in the 28-year-old.
But sources at the Serie A club claim they are now ready to look elsewhere in their search for a new big-name striker.
Juventus fear the striker has already privately agreed to sign for another club and do not want to concentrate their focuses solely on luring Van Persie.
The Italian club will now explore swoops for Manchester City's Edin Dzeko, Real Madrid's Gonzalo Higuain and Napoli's Edinson Cavani.
New target? Juventus could switch their attention to Manchester City's Edin Dzeko
Juventus' decision will only heighten talk that Van Persie is in line for a controversial move to the Etihad Stadium.
Arsenal have offered Van Persie a three year deal worth £130,000-per-week - plus a £5million signing on fee - to extend his contract. MAIL
Man City lead race for RvP: Juve abandon chase for Arsenal star and switch sights to Suarez and Dzeko.
Manchester City remain in pole position to sign the Dutchman form ArsenalItalian giants Juventus are ready to switch targets to Liverpool striker Luis Suarez, Manchester City's Edin Dzeko and Real Madrid's Gonzalo Higuain because they fear they will miss out on van Persie.
But Manchester City, who have made van Persie their top target, are also preparing to play hard ball as they are likely to offer around £15m if a deal can be done.
City remain in pole position but will not get dragged into a bidding war on transfer fee and contract with Manchester United also watching developments.
Real Madrid and Barcelona have yet to come in for him. Jose Mourinho is a fan but may have to sell Higuain first to fund a move.
Juventus have sounded out van Persie's representatives and see the Dutchman as a stellar signing but are beginning to look elsewhere as they do not want to miss out on a big name altogether.
But Juve are also now widening their net and that could be a worry for Liverpool as Suarez is on their hit list despite his public declarations that he is not looking to leave.
Suarez had a controversial season at Anfield but several clubs may test Liverpool's resistance and Juventus could be the first.
Real Madrid are also keeping tabs even though they will have to sell before they can buy.
But van Persie's future is unlikely to be resolved quickly and it is clear that Juventus believe they could be fighting a losing battle to tempt the Dutchman.
Even though Italian football has lost some of its appeal and prestige, Juventus hope to tempt a megastar this summer.
Van Persie, 28, was their first choice and they are prepared to pay up to £25m and £180,000-a-week to get Arsenal's top scorer.
Juventus sporting director Giuseppe Marotta has already gone public and declared their interest in van Persie and called him the "complete player."
But Marotta has also not hidden his interest in Suarez and Higuain and the Italians do not want to be kept waiting on van Persie which can only be good news for Arsenal.
Ironically, Juventus's other option is Dzeko who finished the season at City a frustrated player and yet if he went to Turin then it could end up paving the way for van Persie to go to the Etihad.
Arsenal for a long time feared Real Madrid would be van Persie's most obvious suitors but they and Barcelona have yet to make a move.
Arsenal remain determined to keep van Persie and have offered him £130,000-a-week plus a £5m signing on fee to stay.
But it promises to be another saga as van Persie wants to win trophies and has made it clear he will not re-sign and intends to keep his options open.
Arsenal are determined not to give up on van Persie and the Dutchman has also kept his future top secret from his team mates.
It could also mean that Arsenal are still determined to make van Persie see out the final year of his contract even if he does not want to sign a new deal and wants to leave.
Arsenal insist they will and cannot ban van Persie from talking to the media about his future at the Euros - it is a merry go round which threatens to last some time yet.
If van Persie moves abroad he'll still be an Arsenal legend; go to Manchester and he'll be hated as a traitor MIRROR
Mancini to intervene in Manchester City’s Hazard talks in bid to ward off late Chelsea interest
Blues' interest in Belgian starlet a growing concern to Premier League champions, whose manager is set to intervene in a bid to snare the much sought after Lille winger
Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini will lead a charm offensive this week as the Premier League champions attempt to complete a £32 million deal for Lille star Eden Hazard.
The Belgian wonderkid played his last game for the French side on Sunday night and is at the centre of a transfer tug of war between Manchester United, Chelsea and City after revealing he is yet to decide where he will be playing next season.
City had hoped Hazard would confirm his intention to move to the Etihad Stadium on Monday but they have been frustrated by the demands of the player and his agent, who has asked for nearly £5 million for his part in any deal.
The freshly crowned English champions remain favourites to sign the 21-year-old but they are concerned by suggestions that Hazard’s representatives looked to initiate talks with Chelsea towards the end of last week.
Mancini has made Hazard his top transfer target and will now personally intervene and talk to him when he returns to Manchester this week from Abu Dhabi, where he has been meeting the club’s owners about a new contract.
City captain Vincent Kompany has also been briefed to talk to Hazard when he shares a dressing room with his compatriot for Belgium’s game against Montenegro on Friday night. Kompany is nursing a calf strain sustained on the last day of the season but will still link up with the national team.
Chelsea’s emergence as contenders for Hazard’s signature is a concern to City after the Blues triumphed in the Champions League final on Saturday night, in the process earning a place in the competition next season.
Blues owner Roman Abramovich is ready to fund a regeneration of the squad over the summer and could be ready to meet the representative’s demands, while Hazard has continually spoken of his desire for a regular fist-team role.
The Ligue 1 player of the season is one of the most highly-rated talents in Europe and has been in stunning form this season, scoring 20 league goals and providing 22 assists.
City have offered Hazard wages in the region of £100,000-a-week and the assurance of regular football to lure him to the Etihad Stadium. They have also shown him around the city to look at houses and he was a guest at the Manchester derby at the end of April.
Le Parisien has also suggested that City have agreed to play Lille in a pre-season friendly this summer to open the French club’s new stadium, which has prompted claims it could be part of a deal for Hazard.
But after scoring a hat-trick against Nancy on his final Lille appearance on Sunday, Hazard revealed he is yet to make a decision on his future and suggested Chelsea’s triumph in the Champions League had forced a rethink.
"It is possible that Chelsea's arrival at the negotiation table will delay things, as nothing is done until I sign a contract," Hazard told Canal +.
"Chelsea can make you hesitate, next year they will play in the Champions League. So we will see."
Manchester City 'best value for money' for fans
Manchester City have won the Premier League title and are also top of the league of value for fans, according to the ING Direct Value table.
The bank chart compares club season ticket costs with Premier League performance and entertainment value and getting the most points for your pound.
Wigan, who had a great escape from relegation, are second best value, and West Bromwich Albion third.
Second bottom were Liverpool, whose eighth-place finish in the top flight, Carling Cup triumph and FA Cup final place were not enough to counteract a high season ticket cost and poor scoring record.
And Wolves found themselves in both the official and value relegation zones.
The value league was compiled by comparing season ticket prices with points earned, and with a bonus for goals scored, deemed to affect fans' enjoyment of the game.
Ticket prices frozen
Just under half of fans felt they received good value for money in the 2011-12 season just ended, and as a result are seriously thinking about whether or not to renew their season ticket for the next campaign.
ING Direct 'Football Value League'
1. Man City
2. Wigan
3. West Brom
4. Man Utd
5. Norwich
However it seems that clubs are listening to their concerns, with more than half of Premiership teams (12 of the 20) freezing or lowering their season ticket prices this year in an attempt to retain fans.
Relegated Blackburn Rovers have the most disgruntled fans - many of whom have staged protests in the past season against Indian owners Venky's and manager Steve Kean - with more than half of ticket holders (56%) saying they will not renew.
Aston Villa, who just dodged relegation and recently sacked manager Alex McLeish, had a third of fans (31%) saying they planned to cancel their tickets.
Two-thirds of supporters (67%) also say that a wage cap for Premier League footballers would be a positive move.
Arsenal captain Robin Van Persie topped the "best value player" poll, followed by Newcastle United striker Demba Ba and Tottenham's Scott Parker.
The report's compilation was overseen by Dr Steve Kelly from the University of Huddersfield, an expert in sports and club finance and structures.
Best of the best: review of the season
With a remarkable season all but done, our football writers sit back, draw breath and sift through the multitude of outstanding moments to select their most memorable
[b]BEST MATCH OF THE SEASON: MANCHESTER CITY 3-2 QPR
It has been a vintage season and picking out the best game of the last 10 months is more tricky than usual. Watching Manchester United put eight past a chaotic Arsenal in August, it would have been hard to imagine Arsène Wenger's team finishing third. So too, watching United concede six at home to Manchester City, one would not have thought they would finish the season level on points.
I was at St James' Park in January to see Newcastle beat Manchester United with a bright young team that dominated the game. I was not at Old Trafford for Blackburn Rovers' 3-2 win on New Year's Day or Arsenal's 5-3 win at Stamford Bridge but both those games are worth consideration.
Chelsea's Champions League performances against Valencia at home, in their final group game, against Napoli at home in the first knock-out round and against Barcelona home and away in the semi-finals were all memorable. Against Barcelona, their approach was similar to that of England against Spain in November, Fabio Capello's penultimate game. Some say those games of attack against defence, where huge areas of the pitch are conceded to opponents, are dull. I find them absorbing.
I was at the DW Stadium to see Wigan beat United in April and at Old Trafford for Everton's comeback to 4-4 – two games that undid United's title comeback. But nothing beats City's injury-time win over Queen's Park Rangers this month. Throughout the season there had been exhilaration and excitement but the sheer joyous disbelief at the Etihad topped it all.
Next best: 2 Chelsea 2-2 Barcelona 3 Manchester United 4-4 Everton 4 Manchester United 1-6 Manchester City 5 Bayern Munich 1-1 Chelsea
BEST GOAL: NEWCASTLE'S HATEM BEN ARFA v BOLTON By Martin Hardy, Football Writer
It says much for the quality of goals scored this season that there has been a need to categorise them. Depending on your bag there have been the volleys, the chips, the dribbles and the team goals.
For those who still remember Diego Maradona's second against England, the sight of a player moving poetically as one with the ball, with defenders unable to break the bond between them, the mazy run will always rule. Yes, Peter Crouch's goal was spectacular, yes, Papiss Cissé's strike at Chelsea was breathtaking, and certainly the control of the ball Luis Suarez showed at Norwich was something else.
But nothing this season could beat the sight of Hatem Ben Arfa, in an awful match as well, taking a game and making it his, with artistry that revolved around touch, vision, balance, skill and subtlety.
There was only, realistically, Ben Arfa himself who saw the possibility of scoring when he took a pass inside his own half and set in motion a 70-yard run that took him past four defenders before he subtly poked a shot past Adam Bogdan in the Bolton goal. At moments like that the beautiful game tag sits perfectly with football.
Next best: 2 Luis Suarez, Liverpool v Norwich, 3 Papiss Cissé, Newcastle v Chelsea, 4 Peter Crouch, Stoke City v Manchester City, 5 Hatem Ben Arfa, Newcastle v Blackburn.
BEST TEAM EFFORT: WIGAN'S WIN AT ARSENAL By Jack Pitt-Brooke, Football Writer
What is bravery in football? Crashing tackles? Desperate headers? Bodyguard blocks? Maybe, but it is also the courage to stick to your principles and play your game under intense pressure. There was no more stirring football story last season than Wigan's. Bottom in March, they refused to slide into grim percentage football, hoping to kill games and steal goals.
Roberto Martinez, one of the great progressives, re-arranged his team in a novel 3-4-3 formation. Playing the ball out from the back, trusting each other with possession and attacking with pace and variety, Wigan went on one of the season's best runs of form and surged to safety.
Days after beating Manchester United 1-0, Wigan won 2-1 at the Emirates. They tore into Arsenal with early goals from Franco Di Santo and Jordi Gomez, before defending with assurance. Arsenal pulled one back, but only because Victor Moses slipped.
There was no collapse. Wigan were just as good in the second half as they were in the first, and Moses could have scored twice on the counter-attack. It was a perfectly conceived and executed plan, well worth the three points.
Next best: 2 Tottenham 1-2 Norwich 3 Swansea 1-0 Manchester City 4 West Ham 2-4 Reading 5 Newcastle 3-0 Man United
BEST PLAYER: DIDIER DROGBA By James Lawton, Chief Sports Writer
Infuriatingly self-indulgent at times but then also Chelsea's lion of Africa on the field and a lauded peace worker among his embattled Ivorian compatriots. It is impossible not to give it to Didier Drogba.
As a footballer and a man he met all his responsibilities and was the most significant reason why his club, after all the years of vast investment and administrative misadventure, finally laid their hands on the greatest prize in club football. Chelsea, of course, rode their luck, but it couldn't have happened if Drogba, at the age of 34, hadn't refused so magnificently to accept that his best days were over. In the process he became, as much as a great footballer producing the finest of his talent and his competitive character, a force of nature.
Before his superb crowning eruption in Munich, his leading challengers were Yaya Touré, the driving strength of Manchester City; Sergio Aguero, who gave the new champions not only his superb talent but all the generosity of his spirit; Robin van Persie, for his mastery of the scoring art; and Wayne Rooney's brilliant response to a disciplinary crisis, which kept United so improbably in the title race until the last seconds of the last day of the season.
Next best: 2 Sergio Aguero, 3 Yaya Touré, 4 Robin van Persie, 5 Wayne Rooney
BEST MANAGER: PAUL STURROCK By Ian Herbert, Northern Football Correspondent
He won't welcome the attention and will point to the medication he has found to contend with the effects of Parkinson's Disease – such as the distinct limp in his left foot and the trembling of his left hand – which has afflicted him for 18 years. But the impediments which Paul Sturrock has encountered with next-to-no-money Southend United put football's gilded cage into a little perspective.
It was no surprise that he almost took Southend up from League Two because he was chasing the sixth promotion of his career. Only Neil Warnock has more. A recent study of English football managers by academic Stefan Szymanski, co-author with Simon Kuper of Soccernomics, ranked Sturrock 14th in the all-time list of managers – based on their league finishing positions relative to wages. Some stuttering home form in March didn't help but Sturrock rues the February night Aldershot's floodlights failed when his own side were 1-0 up. The game was abandoned and two weeks later Southend lost the rematch 2-0. Three points would have brought automatic promotion rather than the play-offs, which delivered a narrow semi-final defeat by Crewe. Richer managers, with their frequent cries of injustice, cannot hold a candle to Paul Sturrock.
Next best: 2 Brendan Rodgers (Swansea), 3 Roberto Mancini (Manchester City), 4 Ian Holloway (Blackpool), 5 David Moyes (Everton).
AND...WORST VILLAIN: JOEY BARTON By Glenn Moore, Football Editor
It was such a vintage year for villains those Stoke City fans who booed Aaron Ramsey for having the temerity to have his leg broken at their ground don't even make the top five.
Venky's provided an object lesson in how to alienate a football club from its support, hanging Steve Kean out to dry in the process. Carlos Tevez epitomised all that is wrong about the mercenary modern footballer. Luis Suarez and his club turned what may have been a cultural misunderstanding into an ugly, myopic defence of racist language. The self-serving John Terry became embroiled in another racism row, then made a fool of himself by jeopardising Chelsea's Champions League chances.
But Joey Barton fought off all challengers with a final-day implosion that, had Bolton won at Stoke, would have cost QPR their Premier League status.
That capped an ignominious season in which Barton was sent off twice, agitated for the sacking of Neil Warnock, who had signed him for QPR and made him captain, and created a toxic atmosphere in the Rangers dressing room.
It should at least serve to open the eyes of those who had fallen for Barton's reinvention of himself as a civilised man because he quoted Nietzsche and occasionally attended art galleries. INDEPENDENT[/b]
[spoiler]Craig's WAG of the Decade - Kate Upton
[/spoiler]OTHER BOLLOX
Tottenham want 25-year-old Marseille striker Loic Remy and could swap Luka Modric, 26, for Real Madrid's Lassana Diarra, 27. Daily Mirror
QPR are hoping to make the most of the uncertainty at Aston Villa with a move for goalkeeper Shay Given, 36, who played under Rangers boss Mark Hughes at Manchester City. West Ham's 31-year-old Robert Green could also be a target.
Meanwhile, the newly promoted Hammers fear they may lose Green over his wage demands. the Sun
QPR boss Hughes is also plotting a move for Wigan forward Victor Moses, 21. Daily Mirror
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has given the green light for a spending spree that could include Lille's Eden Hazard, 21, Porto forward Hulk, 25, and Atletico Madrid striker Radamel Falcao, 26. Daily Mirror
Chelsea have given Arsenal a deadline of next week to make a decision on whether they want to sign on-loan midfielder Yossi Benayoun, 32, on a permanent basis. Metro
Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy travelled to Holland on Monday in an attempt to close a deal for Ajax's Belgian defender Jan Vertonghen, 25, who is also wanted by Arsenal and AC Milan. Daily Mail
Blackpool want to turn 29-year-old Swansea forward Stephen Dobbie's loan into a permanent deal. Daily Mirror
Roberto Martinez is set to meet Liverpool's owners in the United States on Thursday, after holding talks with them in England over the weekend. Daily Mirror
Former England boss Fabio Capello is interested in the Anfield vacancy but has had no contact from Liverpool. Independent
Chelsea are far from impressed with the comments made by Fernando Torres about life at Stamford Bridge, but have told the Spain striker, 28, he is going nowhere. Guardian
And owner Abramovich has personally assured Torres about his future at Chelsea. Daily Mirror
Randy Lerner will fly to England on Wednesday as Aston Villa close in on a decision over their new manager. Molde's Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is the favourite but Norwich manager Paul Lambert and Brighton boss Gus Poyet are also under consideration. Daily Mirror
Joe Cole thinks he could still be a success at Liverpool, but only if he is played in central midfield. the Sun
MORE BOLLOX LATER ....
