City plan to trim down strike force in bid to sign Van Persie

SOCCER:MANCHESTER CITY are not planning to test Arsenal's resolve on Robin van Persie until they have trimmed several strikers from Roberto Mancini's squad and their wage bill.

The Premier League champions are keen to sign the Holland international, whose decision not to sign a new contract with Arsenal has exposed the divisions between the club’s major shareholders, and accept there will be fierce competition from teams such as Juventus for the 28-year-old this summer.

City currently have seven forwards in their first team squad, however, and want to reduce that number before making a bid for Van Persie which, if successful, would add approximately another €252,000 to their weekly wage bill a year before Uefa’s financial fair play rules come into effect.

Mancini guided City to the title last season using four main strikers – Sergio Agüero, Mario Balotelli, Carlos Tevez and Edin Dzeko – and the club still have Emmanuel Adebayor, Roque Santa Cruz and Alex Tchuimeni-Nimely, the 21-year-old from Liberia, under contract. The trio were all sent on loan last season – Adebayor to Tottenham Hotspur, Santa Cruz to Real Betis and Tchuimeni-Nimely to Middlesbrough and Coventry City – and City are now looking for the Togo and Paraguay internationals to make a permanent exit.

Tottenham had been interested in an extended deal for Adebayor prior to André Villas-Boas’s appointment as manager but his €214,000-a-week salary presented an insurmountable obstacle, as it will do to most suitors unless the striker accepts a massive pay-cut or reaches a compromise with City.

Santa Cruz returned for pre-season training in Manchester this week and Betis remain in negotiations over his transfer but want the forward, signed by Mark Hughes for €22 million in 2009, on a free.

“We are optimistic about Roque until the day we say no,” said the Betis president, Miguel Guillén. “In the coming weeks we will be working on the matter with the aim of reaching an agreement.”

Guillén also stated that Betis will seek alternative targets should they fail to reach a deal with City. Queens Park Rangers, now managed by Hughes, may again be interested in Santa Cruz.

Meanwhile, the Arsenal chairman, Peter Hill-Wood, has staunchly defended the running of the club against the vitriolic criticism levelled against the board by the 30 per cent owner, the Uzbek billionaire Alisher Usmanov.

Hill-Wood maintained that Arsenal’s policy of spending only what they earn is correct, as is the stance that the American majority owner Stan Kroenke, and former shareholders such as Hill-Wood who made millions selling their shares to Kroenke, should not be expected to put money into the club.

Hill-Wood described Usmanov’s attack on this approach, which Arsenal call a self-financing model, as “not at all helpful”.

The chairman, who made €7 million selling his shares to Kroenke, said the club provides Arsene Wenger with as much money as possible for players, but cannot compete with Manchester City’s wealth.

At the end of a week in which Arsenal’s captain, Robin van Persie, announced he will not sign a new contract, citing a lack of ambition for success, Hill-Wood said: “We don’t have the same oil wealth that Sheikh Mansour has. He is prepared to pay astronomical figures for players; we cannot pay that sort of money, and we can’t compete.”

In his open letter to Arsenal’s board on Thursday, Usmanov was scathing about the self-financing model, arguing it was, in effect, engineered by the former English shareholders, including Hill-Wood, to make personal fortunes.

The owners’ policy of not investing their own money in the club, Usmanov argued, meant Arsenal borrowed to build the Emirates Stadium (€328m), charge supporters very expensive ticket prices, yet still leave Wenger short of money to retain and sign star players.

Alongside Hill-Wood pocketing €7 million, the shareholder Richard Carr made more than €50 million selling to Kroenke in 2009. Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith, who also inherited her shares, made €146 million selling to Kroenke last year. Danny Fiszman, who bought into Arsenal in the 1990s, first with a portion of the former vice-chairman’s David Dein’s stake, made €202 million, the final sale to Kroenke made just before Fiszman died last year.

Hill-Wood said making so much money from selling his shares was “nice”, explaining: “You wouldn’t say no to a few million pounds.” But he rejected as “complete and utter rubbish” the accusation that the club was run deliberately to increase the value of his and the other owners’ shares, at the expense of supporters and a robust budget for Wenger.

“It was nice to make that money, but I was never involved in Arsenal for that reason,” Hill-Wood said. “I was involved because I have been brought up to love Arsenal and that is my only concern.”

Usmanov, with whom Kroenke does not communicate, is also critical of the executive team, who brought in €41 million commercial income last year, €88 million less than Manchester United.