Many people believe Arteta will prioritise strengthening the midfield in the summer. Some may argue that they know who his main target is, so who is it? Declan Rice, who else? A lot has been said about the West Ham player, but one thing has remained consistent: he is not going to come cheap.
A few weeks ago, David Moyes stated that in order to sign Rice, his suitors would have to break the £105 million British transfer record currently held by Chelsea’s Enzo Fernandez. So the question is, how far will Arsenal go for Rice?
Arsenal will be willing to pay a high price for West Ham’s midfield engine, but they will not go above £100 million.
“I think Arsenal are definitely willing to break their own transfer record to sign Declan Rice, but I’m not sure they’re going to go above and beyond £100 million and break the British record,” said Dean Jones on Give Me Sport about Rice’s potential move to Arsenal.
“I think West Ham will be hopeful that that happens. They’re hopeful that they can get £110m for Rice. I can understand why they would set their stall out at that level. I’m just not 100% sure that it’s realistic.”
With how dominant Arsenal’s midfield has been this season, Rice has the potential to make it the best in the league once he joins.
West Ham may be forced to compromise their high price tag on his head, given that he will be in the final year of his contract with them, and if they do not sell him, they may risk losing him for nothing.
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Declan Rice is going to be a very interesting defensive midfield target for us come this summer and why shouldn’t he.
He’s arguably one of the best defensive midfielder playing in his current position worldwide.
His sheer defensive capabilities haven’t gone unnoticed, one such person who has take note is the gaffer and with our war chest still not exhausted from the recent winter window any game could play..
Surely a young and powerful midfielder got to be on top of the cards this summer and no uk transfer record will stand in the way of our target in my opinion.
And it shouldn’t really matter if we lift the big jug or not
Heis amazing but it’s 2 much for a player who has just one year remaining in his contract.I guess it will be less than what Moyse is trying
to market.
Rice is an experienced and consistent player who could
be valuable in the CL and PL. But watching the Chelsea
game you immediately see the pure class of players
like Thiago Silva and J. Felix. Chavs will be strong next season ??
For me, it was disappointing when Arsenal did not aggressively went after Declan Rice signing last January transfer window. When his cost price could be less financially strenuous for them to sign him. Than to sign him next summer when his transfer signing fee payable may increase to a higher cost level due to competition for his signature by other top clubs in the Epl.
The higher cost price bidding for him by other top clubs which Arsenal may not be able to match or surpassed it to get him signed.
And besides, Arsenal may be mindful of Rice’s age next summer window vis a vis the length of top quality Dmf service job years that he can possibly renders to the team, before he clocks 30. To see if it’ll be up to 5 years at the top level. Which if is, could make him worth investing the colossal amount of transfer money that’s mentioned on him by Arsenal next summer.
Or instead, the club could decide to uptout of to sign him for a less costlier Dmf next summer. Whose age is younger to Rice and Dmf job doing is at par with his or better.
Im sorry anything more than 60 million is overpaying for Declan Rice . This season he hasnt been better than Onana or Caecedo .
I agree. He’s really good, but not worth the sort of money that’s being talked about. You’d want someone who’s achieved something significant for that kind of money, someone who’s proven to be at least as good as Partey – right now, I wouldn’t swap him for partey, and I don’t see him being much use further forward (xhaka’s current role), so he doesn’t get into our starting 11 for me…
When we play West ham, he’s not a player that worries me, I still expect us to largely boss the midfield, because we largely do! So why pay so much for him?
70-80m tops otherwise we go for the likes of Onana or Caicedo and let Chelsea continue towards overspending relegation in a couple of years.
Rice has not long left on his contract and West Ham will be acutely aware of this, as will Rice himself and his agent.
Although with Chelsea and other clubs who are slightly financially bonkers and will throw endless money at players, I still think, on balance that Rice will fetch less than”£100mill”.
If its not more than say £ 80- 90mill, I could see us possibly going to that, but not more. AND NOR SHOULD WE PAY MORE EITHER.
It all about best value players for money, if we are going to be regularly successful.