West Ham United transfer talks for Declan Rice to Arsenal ‘almost finalised’ as £100m timeline emerges – Jacob Steinberg
The talks between West Ham and Arsenal over the payment structure for the £105million Declan Rice transfer are “almost finalised”, Jacob Steinberg reports.
The decision to sell the Hammers captain to the Gunners was finally reached on Wednesday (28 June) after Manchester City withdrew from the race, but the finer details of how the move would be processed have been in discussion since.
The Irons wants as much money as soon as possible and, and according to Guardian journalist Steinberg that includes the £100m guaranteed portion of the fee by the end of 2024, but the talks are nearly complete.
Reporting via Twitter on Friday night (30 June) he wrote: “Talks over the payment structure for Declan Rice’s £105m move to Arsenal are almost finalised.
“West Ham have been looking for the guaranteed part of the fee to be paid by the end of next year.”
Hard bargain
In the context of deals this big that is a very short timeframe so if the Irons have managed to get Arsenal to agree to that, or something in the region of it, that is some tough negotiating.
There weren’t too many fears that the deal would break down having reached this point, but it looks like a final agreement is now close.
Attention will now turn to who the club intend to spend that money on, and with the sale such a high-profile one it is unlikely to be particularly helpful when it comes to purchases.
Every selling club will know West Ham have cash to spend and are bound to want to bump up their own asking prices, so the Hammers will have decisions on their hands as to whether they want their primary targets either way or if they will need to move on to alternatives.
Rice was never going to go cheap, but after securing the minimum £100m fee the club were looking for it was the payment structure that became the next key consideration.
Indications are that they are about to get something close to what they want, which shows how much Arsenal wanted Rice, and if he proves to be as important at the Emirates as he has been at the London Stadium then a hefty outlay in a short space of time will likely prove money well spent.
In other West Ham news, the Irons have stolen a march on multiple Premier League rivals to enter “advanced” negotiations for a sought-after attacking star.