Man Utd offer Van Persie escape from Arsenal

Manchester United is emerging as the preferred destination of Arsenal striker Robin van Persie after Juventus became involved in a match-fixing controversy involving their coach Antonio Conte.

United and Manchester City have been battling it out with Juve for the Dutch international this summer and all three have had bids turned down by the Gunners.

Van Persie is reportedly not keen on moving to City - who are now looking at Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuain instead - and prefers a switch to Juve or Old Trafford.

But the dramatic developments could now push Van Persie towards Old Trafford, according to the Daily Mirror.

Conte is facing a lengthy ban over match-fixing related allegations levelled against him.

Conte, who led Juventus to the Serie A title last season, is accused of failing to report match-fixing in two games in the 2010-11 season when he was coach of Siena, then in Serie B. 

It prompted Carl Thomas, who is assistant to the Arsenal striker's agent Kees Vos to post on Twitter that Conte's predicament was "hardly the advert" to convince RvP to sign for Italian champions Juve.

Thomas tweeted: "Not the bet (sic) news coming from Italy regarding Juve manager. It's hardly the advert to come and join us."

Conte is accused of failing to report alleged match-fixing in two games in the 2010-11 season, when he was in charge of Siena in Italy's second tier.

A proposal from the Juve boss to strike a plea-bargain deal that would see him suspended for three months has been rejected by the Italian Football Federation.

Arsenal are holding out for £20m-plus while none of the offers was above £15m.

The latest match-fixing storm to rock Italian football, appears to give United an edge. 

However, United have yet to increase their offer.

They are concerned about van Persie's poor injury record and that he will have little sell-on value because he turns 29 on Monday.