The news every Gooner dreads: moneybags Manchester City keen on Robin van Persie

IT’S official. The news every Gooner has been dreading. Manchester City and their ridiculously rich backers have targeted Arsenal’s goalden Dutchman Robin van Persie. Arsene Wenger won’t be surprised. He’s already seen Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Adebayor, Gael Clichy and Samir Nasri head north to Eastlands, lured by the oil-soaked Dirhams on offer from Sheikh Mansour in Abu Dhabi. Arsenal’s bank balance may have improved, but as every Gooners knows, they’re struggling to compete without that handy quartet. Now Roberto Mancini, with his side top of the Premier League, had told The Sun in London: “All good teams are interested in him. At this moment, Robin van Persie is one of the best strikers in Europe with Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Sergio Aguero and Mario Balotelli.” Bloody Mancini. He’s already got Aguero and Balotelli on his books. Edin Dzeko isn’t bad. Adebayor is on loan at Spurs and Carlos Tevez is lurking somewhere in the twilight between an apology and Argentina. Five world class strikers is an expensive luxury. Six would be ridiculous. But Mancini is only too aware that without Van Persie, Arsenal would be taken out of the equation as a Premier League threat. With 25 goals this season, he leads the English goalscoring charts by seven from Wayne Rooney. Without those goals, Arsenal probably be languishing somewhere just blow the middle of the tables, with fans at the Emirates Stadium having a right go at Gervinho, Maroune Chamakh and Theo Walcott every week. Arsenal’s potential demise only encourages Mancini, who said: "We are interested in all good players. If there is a good player who wants to leave a club, then we are interested.” Mancini, like Pep Guardiola at Barcelona and Jose Mourinho if he stays at Real Madrid after winning La Liga this season, won’t be put off by Van Persie’s repeated claims of loyalty to Wenger. At 28, he’s out of contract at the end of 2013. The giants are waiting to swoop, with money no object if Van Persie doesn’t sign a new deal before the end of the winter. Mancini claims: "If Van Persie leaves I don't think he will be cheap because he has one year left on his contract. If, for example, you wanted to buy Napoli's Edinson Cavani he would be maybe £30million. "I think Van Persie will sign a new contract. He is Arsenal's best player and it is difficult for them to give him to another club. "I think he is a fantastic striker but I think he will remain with Arsenal." Then why talk about him at all Roberto?

Happy XMas To All From Manchester City's Roberto Mancini. Unless You're Mario Balotelli. Ho, Ho, Oh!

Ah, Christmas. A time for good cheer, peace to all men (and women, I guess), and the birth of the tiny baby Commercialism. And then along comes Scrooge, in the form of Manchester City’s Roberto Mancini.

Here’s his festive gift for City’s expensive Italian striker Mario Balotelli after a distinctly average display in Monday’s shock 2-1 defeat at the hands of Everton.

"If Mario deserves to play he will play. If he doesn't deserve to play he doesn't play. If Mario doesn't work, he doesn't play.

"It's not important Mario has a good technique and is a good player. If we want to improve we need everybody giving 200 per cent.

"Mario is a special player but you have to put strength and heart into your performances."

Poor old super Mario. He left Inter Milan under a bit of a cloud. His Ghanaian parents claim he was snatched away from them, given a new surname and now their beloved 20-year-old never contacts them. The San Siro fans gave him a right pelting. Italian fans resent their first black international. The £24m move to Eastlands was supposed to be his salvation.

Now, with Carlos Tevez apparently forgiving and forgetting his much-hyped transfer request, Balotelli finds himself armed on with a cushion as he heads for Newcastle’s St James’s Park on Boxing Day. A place on the bench is the best he can hope for.

But hold on. When Tevez was sulking and arguing with Mancini, it was Balotelli who took the strain. He’s got five goals in nine games so far. While Brazilian misfit Jo and former Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor look anything but devoted to the cause, Balotelli has taken a red card and a lot of flak trying to keep Sheikh Mansour’s overpaid mercenaries up among the contenders.

Mancini, a scarf-wearing paragon of fashion who probably suggested the snood neck-warmer to his players when winter set in, adds: "Mario must improve his situation and smile. I do not know why he does not look happy. Manchester is not like Milan but he has to accept it."

Hold on, hold on. Does Milan have a Piccadilly Christmas Fair? A Spinningsfields Ice Rink? A fireworks display on New Year’s night? Hah!

What’s Mancini saying? He first came across Balotelli at Inter. Did he bring him to a barren British northern metropolis without deep thought? Snow joke you know. Mancini insists: "I do have a good relationship with Mario but he must play well, must work hard every day, like the other players."

So Patrick Vieira’s working hard is he? And Gareth Barry, James Milner, Wayne Bridge, Shaun Wright-Phillips? They’re all happy? Craig Bellamy decamped to Cardiff because he was ecstatic? Yaya Toure drove off at half-time during the defeat against Arsenal because he was loving every moment?

The expensively assembled glut of galacticos don’t click like clockwork, let’s face it. How about Tevez? Any sign of a word with the fans after his transfer request saga, Roberto?

Mancini mumbles: "I don't know. Maybe he should apologise. It is now important Carlos plays well and scores goals. But the fans still love him."

Ho, ho, ho Mr Mancini. The second half of Manchester City’s season will be a fascinating rollercoaster ride. And somehow, I can’t see the dapper little Italian surviving until the summer.

Who the hell is Neal Collins (nealcol on Twitter)? See www.nealcollins.co.uk. And a Merry Christmas to you all. Good night.

Four dead and Togo say: 'We're going home.' But don't let this ruin the World Cup in South Africa

AFTER confirmation that FOUR people - including a player - died in the attack on their team bus yesterday, Togo (right) have pulled out of the African Cup of Nations and coach Hugo Velud has called for the tournament in Angola to be called off.

Overnight reports said only one man died – the bus driver – and nine were injured, two of them players, Romanian-based Serge Akakpo and Kodjovi Obilale, who plays in France.

Today comes confirmation that assistant coach Abalo Ametele, press officer Stan Ocloo and reserve goalkeeper Obilale have also died from their injuries.

Their most famous player, Manchester City's Emmanuel Adebayor, suggests the attack was a slight on the whole continent before their first World Cup, coming to South Africa in June. But it should be firmly pointed out that this atrocity happened 1,769 miles from Johannesburg, where I am now, waiting for the crucial fourth Test between England and South Africa at The Wanderers.

It's less than that, 1,552 miles, from London to Moscow. And Cabinda was always a controversial choice of venue for the Angolans. When the Portuguese withdrew from Africa in the early 1970s, leaving Mocambique, Angola and Cabinda to their own devices, the Angolans laid claim to the oil-rich enclave to their north, though it stands alone in mid-Congo.

I was on Sky News from their local studio today and I will be on tomorrow on their Sunrise programme explaining that the Cabinda shootings should not influence people coming out to South Africa for the World Cup.

The Americans, who have bought more tickets for the tournament than any other foreign nation so far (England are second, Germany third) tend to view Africa as one big country. My message? Don't panic. Nothing has happened here.

I've been in this country for a month on the current cricket tour and there's not a hint of trouble. There are no heavily armed freedom fighters in this country any more. Not since the African National Congress took charge i n 1993.

The separatists in Cabinda have been at it for 50 years, trying to take independence first from the Portuguese in 1963 and then from Angola since 1974. Three of these groups, the Movement for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (MLEC), Action Committee of the Cabinda National Union (CAUNC), and the Mayombe National Alliance (ALLIAMA), merged to form the The Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC) - and this 40-year-old organisation are the ones who claim to have attacked the Togo team buses yesterday.

FLEC say they were aiming for the military escort rather than the players. In truth they attacked the front of the two buses - carrying the kit - which may have saved further loss of life.

Now the Confederation of African Football says Togo never sought permission to travel from their Congo training base by bus. The Angolans insisted all teams playing in Cabinda should fly in. But they had a military presence with them from the border, so surely the Angolans and CAF were aware of Togo's arrival.

Either way, Cabinda is unlikely to host a game in this tournament, assuming it goes ahead.

Togo striker Jonathan Ayite, clearly distressed, said: "Obilale is dead and even if you bring the president and even US president Barack Obama himself, we're leaving immediately, we're going back home. Ghana and the Ivory Coast are in solidarity with us."

Obilale played for non-league French outfit Pontivy. Their spokesman Alain Le Dour said: "We have been called to give us this news but we have not yet had it in an official manner.

"It is very difficult to have more precise information. Yesterday we didn't know where he took a bullet. We were told that he was successfully operated on and we talked about a transfer to South Africa. Officially we don't know any more."

Coach Velud said of cancelling the tournament: "We can at least pose ourselves that question. It's an act of barbarism while we are here to celebrate African football.

"We left the hospital a short time ago to come to the centre for the teams in the competition. We stayed in the hospital a long time so that we could be very united.

"In these situations you become a bit paranoid, you doubt everything.

"We don't feel that the authorities are taking this very seriously.

"I don't mean that they want to hush up the matter, but almost. "

Midfielder Alaixys Romao confirmed the players were at the airport and were also encouraging other teams to pull out of the competition.

"We're waiting for the plane to return to Lome. We're also talking to the other teams in our group to try to convince them to boycott the competition too."

The Confederation of African Football may be forced to cancel all games in the disputed territory of Cabinda in an attempt to keep the tournament on track.

Togo’s game against Michael Essien’s Ghana on Monday in the oil-rich enclave has already been called off and the Ghanaians are reported to be considering withdrawing too.

Adebayor, one of the richest men in Africa given his Abu Dhabi-funded salary, convened a team meeting as captain last night to discuss playing on.

Adebayor, though tearful, was unhurt in the attack. The £100,000-a-week goal-getter said: "I think a lot of players want to leave, I don't think they want to be here because they have seen death.

"Most of the players want to go back to their families. No-one can sleep after what they have seen today. They have seen one of their team-mates have a bullet in his body, who is crying, who is losing consciousness and everything.

"We are still in shock."

Adebayor revealed: “We saw military people dressed like they were going to war and it was a little bit of a shock.

"We went through the border and got into Angola and close to the border we started hearing shooting on the bus, for no reason. Obilale got a bullet in his body. Our press and communications guy has got injured; he's not even conscious now, we don't know if he's going to survive or not.

"These are the things we keep saying, keep repeating - in Africa, we have to change our image if we want to be respected but unfortunately that's not happening.

"We have a chance with one of the biggest tournaments in the world, the World Cup. Can you imagine what's happening now? I'm disgraced and, I don't know, it's unfair."

"The thing we don't understand is why they shot on our bus, that's the question now. There's no-one who has got a reason for that. It's not only one guy, or two guys shooting one time or two times on our bus.

"Can you imagine, we have been in the middle of that for 30 minutes, even a little bit more. Our bus had been stopped and people had been shooting on our bus for 30 minutes.

"If you can imagine, the silence on the bus was unbelievable."

A statement on the official FIFA website said: “FIFA and its President, Joseph S Blatter, are deeply moved by today's incidents which affected Togo's national team, to whom they express their utmost sympathy.

“FIFA is in touch with the African Football Confederation and its President, Issa Hayatou, from which it expects a full report on the situation.”

Far from the shootings in Angola, this is South Africa

As news filters through about the Togo team bus which came under fire from Congolese rebels in Angola, I've just taken a call from Sky News. Like most European media, they will link this attack with the World Cup. I hope to put them straight later this evening.

Though the bus driver is hurt - possibly shot dead - the two Premier League players, Manchester City's Emmanuel Adebayor and Aston Villa's Mustapha Salifou are apparently "shaken but unhurt". It appears the Togo side may now withdraw from the African Nations Cup, which kicks off tomorrow. Togo were supposed to play Michael Essien's Ghana on Monday.

It's not good. This awful incident will have repercussions for the 2010 World Cup, inevitably, though Angola is a war-torn former Portuguese colony thousands of miles from where I am in Johannesburg, awaiting Thursday's decisive fourth cricket Test between England and South Africa.

Perhaps it's time to give my latest verdict on this country, thousands of miles from Cabinda, where yesterday's atrocity took place. I’ve been here a month now, yet another return to Africa. Since mid-December I’ve been covering the four-match Test series between England and South Africa. It’s been an incredible struggle on the cricket field.

But like all sport, what happens off the field is integral to the experience. I’ve been to Centurion, just outside Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town and now Johannesburg.

Four entirely different cities, these are the four major World Cup venues later in the year. I attended a game between the local Premier League champions Supersport United and rock-bottom Jomo Cosmos at Loftus Versfeld, the World Cup stadium in the South African administrative capital, Pretoria.

It’s where hosts South Africa will play Uruguay on June 16 and the USA take on Algeria on June 23, just two of the five qualifying games scheduled for the 50,000-capacity rugby stadium opened in 1903 and refurbished many times, the last in 2008.

I was one of the few white fans in evidence, but there was no sense of insecurity or differentness. An electrician called Reggie took me under his wing and gave me a run down on the state of local football. He even offered a tour of the townships and a trip to see the great Kaizer Chiefs. Afterwards, dressed in an England football jersey, I was hugged by the Supersport fans outside as they celebrated a 3-0 victory. “We’ll beat you at the World Cup,” they laughed, hopefully.

Outside the scenic Centurion cricket ground, the brand new Gautrain rail link flies on concrete stilts through the air over the motorways. Most of it will be open in time for the big kick-off on June 11. It is a major feat of modern engineering and a major drain on any nation's resources, costing billions.

And everywhere in Centurion, the rapidly growing metropolis north of Pretoria, there is an awareness the world is coming to town. What can I tell you? That the Velmore Estate, just outside the tiny suburb of Erasmia, will house Michael Ballack and the German team? Magnificent place. Google it. Remote, backing on to the tranquil Hennops River. Helpful staff showed my father and I around the spa, an oxygen chamber and luxury rooms, complex medical facilities – they’re even building a poolside beach.

In Centurion itself, the Italians will be at Leriba Lodge and the Americans will go to Irene Lodge, a mile away. Beautiful African venues with lakes and traditional thatch in evidence. Both will train at local high schools, where special pitches have been laid for the international onslaught of football studs training at altitude, preparing for a World Cup a different heights, but blissfully free of Apartheid.

In neighbouring Pretoria, Diego Maradona's Argentina will be based at the University's High Performance Centre, where the trans-sexual world athletics champion Caster Semenya was coaxed to stardom.

Then, in Muldersdrift, one step closer to Johannesburg, the Australians are staying at beautiful Kloofsicht in the middle of nowhere while the Dutch have chosen the centre of opulent Joburg suburb Sandton for their base, training at the Milpark Stadium, home of local side Wits.

And I even discovered the England training camp outside Rustenburg. Secret, luxurious, not complete until May. Built by the Bafokeng tribe, who earn a percentage from the numerous local platinum mines, the Bafokeng Sports Palace complex offers 17 grass pitches, five artificial surfaces, swimming pools and a magnificent low-slung hotel complex fit for a king. King Kagosi Leruo Molotgeti to be precise. The local monarch has been heavily involved in the project which will become the highest altitude training camp in the country.

The first British journalist to enter the facility, I finally found the burgeoning complex under construction behind a fading motel facade six kilometres along the road to Africa’s Las Vegas Sun City from the Bafokeng World Cup stadium in underdeveloped Phokeng (mind how you pronounce that).

Just by chance (the World Cup draw on December 4 last year was very kind to them!) England will open their campaign against the USA there on June 12 in front of a full-house 42,000 fans from the two best supported nations in South Africa. And they’ll be back for their first knock-out game in the same magnificent bowl if they win Group C. You can read more about this – and see exclusive photographs - on my website at www.nealcollins.co.uk.

Then on to the Boxing Day Test in Durban, another town undergoing huge World Cup construction. There I visited the magnificent new Moses Mabhida Stadium, which will host five qualifiers and a semi-final. A magnificent arched arena right next to the huge King’s Park rugby stadium, it will hold 70,000 and they are just finishing the construction of a fans’ walkway to nearby Battery Beach.

Already fans are able to take a cablecar over the arch and they are even planning to allow bungy jumping from the highest point. Incredible!

Durban is a vast, cosmopolitan port, shared by Europeans, Asians and Zulus. I walked to the beach from the luxurious Hilton Hotel a mile away and felt completely at home on the African seaside, body surfing in the huge rollers of the Indian Ocean, where once black people were banned from bathing.

New Year took us to Cape Town and another brand new stadium at Green Point. The scenery has to be seen to be believed. Nestled under Signal Hill next to the landmark Table Mountain, the parliamentary capital of South Africa is another cosmopolitan port, where all colours, all creeds, are now free to mingle.

My wife Tracy and I walked the main road – Long Street – at 2am on New Year’s night amid the revellers. And despite her alarmingly short evening dress, we only received hearty “Happy New Years” from the teeming masses. It was an evening that capped a very moving return to Africa.

And finally, as I write, I find myself in Johannesburg at the plush Wanderers Protea hotel. Two World Cup stadiums here. Ellis Park, the nation’s historic rugby stadium which can hold 62,000 after recent refurbishment. First used in 1926, the venue where South Africa won the nation-unifying Rugby World Cup in 1995 will host five qualifiers and a quarter-final.

Then, on the other side of the city near the fabled township of Soweto where the seeds of freedom were sown in 1976, we have Soccer City. A crowd of 94,700 will fill the Kalabash-shaped (cauldron-shaped) stadium for the opening game of the World Cup between the hosts and Mexico. It will also be the venue for the final on June 11. What a day that promises to be.

Johannesburg is the most troubled of South Africa’s cities. It’s always been a fascinating hotchpotch, since the Witwatersrand gold rush of the 19^th century brought fortune hunters from around the world to the heart of Africa.

Today it is a bustling metropolis, the biggest city in South Africa and still the commercial capital, where it all happens, where the stock exchange keeps this nation ahead of the rest of the continent economically.

There is a third-world fear of crime in the streets here, but only in certain areas, like any major city. I suggest caution, but no need for rampant paranoia.

For four weeks, with thousands of English “Barmy Army” cricket fans, we have traversed the nation, discovering new gems, shrugging off the xenophobia of the European media which suggests we must always be on our guard in post-Apartheid South Africa.

And everywhere the changes wrought in 16 years of democracy are evident. Find me a nation which has developed more than this one since 1993. The 35-mile stretch between Pretoria and Johannesburg has mushroomed beyond belief.

Once there were miles of empty bushveld between the cities. Now Centurion, Midrand and Sandton are joined by thousands of middle class homes, shopping malls and retail outlets. This is boom time, even in a recession.

Rustenburg has grown beyond recognition, as have three further World Cup cities, Port Elizabeth, Nelspruit and Polokwane. Game Parks abound. When the nation changed there were around 60 safari parks. Now there are over 6,000. Take time when you visit, make sure you take a dawn or dusk game drive. You’ll never forget it.

Durban has rebuilt the once-troubled Point Road area south of the city, creating an African paradise called Ushaka, all restaurants, aquariums and shops. At one venue, built in a ship wreck, you eat lobster watched by sharks in a two-storey high glass tank at your elbow.

Up the north coast, tiny villages like Umdhloti and Ballito have become major resorts. Umhlanga offers the biggest shopping centre in the southern hemisphere.

And they’ve got the new runway near La Mercy opening in March, so two airports will ferry the thousands of football fans into the city, from the industrial south and the sugar-cane festooned north.

And in Cape Town, the jewel at the tip of Africa, growth along the waterfront, where former prisoners host boat trips to Nelson Mandela's now-defunct political jail on Robben Island, continues unfettered by the global economic downturn.

In one day, we saw the seals at Hout Bay, the penguins at Boulder Beach and baboons at Cape Point where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet. We travelled by cable car up the mountain, by funicular railway to the Cape Point lighthouse, by coach around the magnificent Chapman's Peak.

I’ve already been on 702 radio here talking about the upcoming tournament, Africa’s first World Cup. Explaining that so much of what the Rainbow Nation has achieved since 1993 should be considered nearly miraculous. This is the start of my World Cup crusade.

Surprisingly, there is positive feedback - even from the staunch Afrikaners, who had their hard-won political power torn away by the surprise Nelson Mandela/FW De Klerk double act in the early 1990s.

For over 40 years, Apartheid was shoved down the throats of every young white man in South Africa. We are the master race, they were told, at school and in church, at home and at work.

For over 40 years, the indigenous folk were told they were the foreigners here, second class citizens in their own land, at school and in church, at home and at work.

But South Africa today is the Rainbow Nation. A black middle class has emerged from nowhere. Articulate Africans abound, defying years of poorly funded “Bantu Education”. Black and white eat together, worship together, live together. It seems like yesterday they couldn’t even share a bench together.

Over the last month, thousands of English cricket fans and international tourists will have seen what I have witnessed. An African nation emerging as a world force, a colour blind Rainbow Nation capable of miracles.

And soon the world will see it. Every television, every newspaper will focus on Africa’s first World Cup from June 11 to July 11. And I hope they see what we’ve seen.