Manchester United and Manchester City in battle to sign Robert Lewandowski

Manchester City are ready to go head-to-head with deadly rivals United in the £25.5million chase for Borussia Dortmund star Robert Lewandowski.

Manuel Pellegrini’s Blues have been in touch with the Polish forward’s representatives to verbally register their interest.

And City have indicated they are willing to make him one of their best-paid players with wages of around £200,000 a week.

For now, they have been told Lewandowski, 24, has his heart set on a move to Bayern Munich.

Yet both City and Real Madrid are ready to smash the personal terms on offer in Munich.

Former United boss Alex Ferguson was a huge fan of Lewandowski and the club asked to be kept informed of developments by Dortmund — but there has hardly been any contact over the summer.