Arsenal captain Robin van Persie has returned from a Caribbean holiday and will hold further talks with manager Arsene Wenger and chief executive Ivan Gazidis this week.
Van Persie is out of contract in twelve months time and last Wednesday announced while on holiday that he does not plan to sign a new contract at Arsenal, sparking a £25million battle to secure his services this summer.
Juventus and Manchester City are widely seen as frontrunners in the race to sign the 28-year-old and are expected to step up their interest in the coming days.
Reports in Italy have claimed Italian champions Juve have already failed with one bid.
Several Manchester City players have called for Van Persie to join them at the Etihad Stadium, and according to the Sunday Mirror, City midfielder Nigel de Jong has been privately encouraging his Netherlands international team-mate and to join him in the north west.
However it is believed City are only prepared to pay around £15m for the forward, and need to offload Emmanuel Adebayor - possibly to Tottenham - before they can push ahead with a deal.
City defender Kolo Toure this week said he believes Van Persie would be the perfect addition to Roberto Mancini's title-winning squad.
"Robin is a top player. I’ve played with him, I know him and he’s a great man," he told the Manchester Evening News.
"At City we have great players and the club does what it wants in transfers.
"But, for me, if Robin comes it’s great because I know what he can do. You have to build your squad every year to do better. To win the Champions League is very difficult as we have seen."
