Declan Rice to leave West Ham United ‘this week’ as pre-season timeline shared
We’re delighted to welcome former West Ham United striker Frank McAvennie as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the London Stadium…
Frank McAvennie expects Declan Rice to leave West Ham United this week after Manchester City and Arsenal had bids rejected.
The Hammers have rejected two bids from Arsenal and one from Man City as they fall under the club’s £100m valuation for the 24-year-old captain, who has two years remaining on his contract.
But with players set to start returning to clubs over the next week or so, McAvennie believes that Rice’s future will be sorted sooner rather than later as whoever signs him will want him in as early as possible.
“They’re haggling at £80m or something at the moment,” he told West Ham Zone. “I don’t think they start [pre-season] until another week or so.
“It’s going to happen this week because whoever is going to take him will want him for pre-season. They’ll want him.
“The only problem is that he’ll be later because he was in the England squad and they have a week extra. There’s another ten days before pre-season starts for the English internationals. They’ve got that period to get him in because they’ll want him in right from the beginning.
“It’s a great bond when you go away on trips and pre-season tours, it’s great bonding for the new players so that is what they’ll want.
“We’ll wait and see but I think the next week to ten days is going to be interesting.”
Rice has made it clear that he wants to play Champions League football and the club admitted they promised he would be able to leave this summer.
However if the interested parties are not willing to pay the club’s asking price, then both West Ham and Rice will have a decision to make on his future ahead of the new season.
In other West Ham news, star man changes agents as record-breaker’s future in doubt amid transfer interest.