West Ham United ready to walk away from Arsenal transfer as Monday Declan Rice deal hopes ‘dead’, he could stay
The possibility that Declan Rice could stay at West Ham have emerged as problems have hit the talks with Arsenal according to Claret & Hugh.
A £105million total fee was agreed with the Gunners to sell the 24-year-old star last week (28 June) after Manchester City dropped out of the running and Jacob Steinberg reported the deal was “almost done” two days later.
The Guardian journalist had indicated that the Hammers wanted the £100m guaranteed money by the end of next year, but according to the latest reports an impasse has been reached on the payment terms because Arsenal still want to pay over four years.
According to Claret & Hugh that has left hopes that a deal could be completed Monday (3 July) “dead”, with a club source telling the outlet: “We are still fighting with Arsenal to do the gest deal for WHU, but we are hopeful it will conclude in next 72 hours. To be honest we still hope he stays, though its very unlikely!”
And in a further update from Six Foot Two it has emerged that the Irons want a sell-on clause to give them a cut of any future profits, and the add-ons to be achieved through simpler means than Premier League or Champions League trophy wins.
As such their report states: “The Hammers are fully prepared to walk away from the deal if they don’t get their own way and that unlikely scenario could see Rice stay a Hammer.”
Dramatic
Having reached this stage it would be a huge shock to see the deal collapse, but it has now been almost a week since the two London clubs got together to negotiate the final details and no agreement has been reached.
Should the biggest transfer in the club’s history fall through there is sure to be no shortage of bad feeling on all sides, as the Hammers’ own window is thought to largely be tied to getting the money in for the captain.
Arsenal clearly want their top target badly, and by all indications Rice himself wants the move to the Emirates, so to get this close it seems inconceivable that it doesn’t now happen.
But that suggestion is now out there so what happens over the next few days will be instructive as to whether the England international will be wearing Arsenal colours next year.
The prospect that he might stay will no doubt get West Ham fans excited, but it has to be considered a very small chance still, as it would require these negotiations to collapse entirely and all the other interested parties to fail as well over the rest of the window.
Perspectives on who the responsibility lies with in this situation will no doubt depend almost entirely on club allegiances, but the Irons-Gunners rivalry is likely to have gone up a notch next season either way.
In other West Ham news, another midfielder is set to leave the London Stadium whatever happens in the Rice talks, with his former manager interested in a reunion.