Vieira: It's goodbye from him (CliveBrunskill/Allsport)

Vieira has agreed personal terms with Real and after winning the FA Cup last weekend told a close friend that even adding the Premiership title would not influence his decision.

Real expect to pay around £30m for Arsenal's forceful midfielder, even though they were quoted a figure £10m higher than that when they made extended attempts to wrest him from Highbury last July.

But they believe that the general recession in the transfer market makes the adjusted price a more realistic one.

The France international has two years left on his Arsenal contract. However, the club's vice-chairman David Dein admitted that they could not afford to risk a player of his value leaving on a Bosman free.

Dein and manager Arsene Wenger remain hopeful that 25-year-old Vieira might change his mind and sign a new deal at Arsenal but it is significant that they have made provision for his departure by entering into negotiations for possible replacements, with PSV Eindhoven's Marc van Bommel top of their list.

Real have been freed to move for Vieira more quickly than they expected after it became financially feasible to recruit him and AC Milan striker Andriy Shevchenko during the close season.

Real's sport director Jorge Valdano had intimated that the club would not be able to afford the estimated £65m it will cost for both players and that a player to partner Raul would take precedence.

A deal to sell striker Fernando Morientes to Roma for £20m has since been agreed, however, allowing Real to offset the cost of buying the Ukraine forward and leaving the door open for another high-profile purchase.

In a further twist, Milan have reluctantly bowed to Shevchenko's request to leave, but only when they can be sure of completing the transfer chain by signing Roma's Vincenzo Montella.

Losing Vieira will be a particularly heavy loss to Wenger as he attempts to build on the success of this season but even his intervention will not prevent him from leaving.

'Patrick respects Arsene's opinion but this is a matter where even winning the Double will not affect his final decision,' a friend of Vieira said yesterday.

A source close to Real president Florentino Perez yesterday confirmed that Vieira's signing was expected to be tied up as soon as the English season is over.

Meanwhile, another of Arsenal's Frenchmen, striker Robert Pires, was yesterday questioned by magistrates investigating the finances of Olympique Marseille but said there were no charges against him.

Pires signed for Marseille from Metz in 1998 and left the former European champions two seasons later to join Arsenal.

He said: 'The magistrates wanted to know about the circumstances around those transfers, my salaries and bonuses paid on signature. I told them nothing they did not already know.

'There is nothing alarming, no big deal. I have nothing to be blamed for. I was wise to leave Marseille because nothing's changed. It's still the same old mess.'