TheSportsCampus

Roberto Mancini is growing increasingly peeved with Manchester City's club officials, with the Citizens falling behind Manchester United and Juventus in the race for Arsenal frontman Robin van Persie. City were the initial favourites to land the wantaway striker, but have slowly slipped down the pecking order and now look increasingly unlikely to be able to lay claim to their primary summer transfer target.

That has angered the Citizens' manager, whose reported bust-up with the club's chief football administrator Brian Marwood seems to have stemmed from the Van Persie issue.

Marwood has been keen on offloading the likes of Emmanuel Adebayor, Carlos Tevez, Edin Dzeko and Roque Santa Cruz before making a big-money move for Van Persie, insisting that the players would have to be first diposed of in order to fall under the UEFA Financial Fair Play guidelines.

However, that has delayed their submission of an acceptable bid, with Van Persie, whose desired move away from the Emirates was more borne out of an ambition to win trophies than to command better wages, now said to prefer Manchester United or Juventus. An irate Mancini feels that City have fallen behind because they didn't try hard enough to sign the frontman, and is now trying desperately to get the club's heirarchy to back him.

It is understood that a minimum £20 million bid is required to sign Van Persie, which would fall above Juventus' 20 million Euros cap, but the Italian outfit are hoping that Wenger's desire to sell the player outside the Premier League, along with a better salary structure for the striker, will be enough to land the Gunners' 30-goal man from last term.