Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey has urged captain Robin van Persie to forget about a move to Manchester and stay at Emirates Stadium.
Both Manchester City and neighbours Man United, along with Italian champions Juventus, have lodged bids for Van Persie, who is out of contract at the end of next season and earlier this month announced he does not plan to sign a new deal at the club.
"He had a brilliant season last year and is a big player for us, so we are just hopeful that he will stay," said Ramsey, who is on Olympic duty with Team GB.
"We don't know anything that goes on. We hope that he stays at Arsenal."
AC Milan, Barcelona, and Real Madrid are also thought to be showing interest in the Netherlands international, although Manchester United are now seen as favourites to sign the Dutchman (see Related Articles).
Van Persie scored 37 goals last season, with 30 of them coming in the Premier League.
The Gunners still finished 19 points behind the two Manchester clubs, but Ramsey is convinced that the gap can be closed if they make a good start to the new season.
"If we get off to a better start this season than we did last season, we know we are capable of finishing pretty strongly, like we did last year," he added.
"We have brought in a couple of players [Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud] who are well-known and hopefully we can put ourselves in a position to compete early on."