West Ham United set for ‘record-breaking’ Arsenal bid in Declan Rice transfer race Tuesday
Arsenal are set to table their improved Declan Rice offer to West Ham on Tuesday (20 June), which will be a club-record for the Gunners, John Cross reports in The Mirror.
The first bid from the Emirates was rejected straight away, as at £80million plus add-ons it didn’t get close to the Irons’ £100million-plus asking price.
The new offer is set to amount to £90million all in and Mikel Arteta’s side reportedly “hope that will make progress”.
Arsenal are “determined” to land their number one target, and as therefore preparing the “record-breaking” offer to be put across before the end of Tuesday.
Painful
It has been reported elsewhere [Kieran Gill, 15 June] that the first Arsenal offer amounted to £90million total in itself, so if that was rejected straight away, and received so badly at the London Stadium that is was blasted as “embarrassing” according to TEAMtalk (19 June), this new offer won’t likely do much different.
The fact that Rice is widely thought to want to not only stay in England, but in London, and the long-held links to Chelsea appear to have died away, has likely emboldened the Gunners to believe they can get a discount.
Should the Blues put a big offer on the table, and perhaps crucially if serious money is put up by Manchester City [Telegraph, 15 June], that could put the pressure on.
But otherwise it appears that the Irons are set for small incremental increases from Arsenal that might take some time to get near what David Sullivan is waiting for.
The club have an option to extend Rice’s contract for a second season so they are not under major pressure to sell right now, although the owner has promised his captain he can go for the right offer [talkSPORT, 8 June].
If that offer never materialises the situation could get slightly messy, depending on how understanding Rice is.
He has long been tipped to move on to play in the Champions League, but is thought to want the club adequately compensated, and for now those two objectives aren’t matching up in the eyes of West Ham.