West Ham United transfer update: Declan Rice may have helped Arsenal over possible bidding war – Dharmesh Sheth
Declan Rice may have helped hand Arsenal a boost in their hopes of buying him for less than the West Ham asking price, according to Dharmesh Sheth.
The Hammers want north of £100million for the England star, and would benefit from a bidding war among top clubs for his services.
But Sheth feels that if the 24-year-old has made it clear he only has eyes for a move to the Emirates it will be impossible for West Ham to drive up the price with interest from elsewhere.
The Sky Sports journalist told GIVEMESPORT: “If Rice is making it clear that Arsenal is the only club he wants to join, you can’t create that bidding war and then that might work in Arsenal’s favour.
“Arsenal have shown that they are ambitious, and they want to be ambitious, and they want to back Mikel Arteta, but they will always have their price for a player.
“And very rarely do they go above that price, so let’s see if Rice proves to be an exception to that rule, because it seems that they really are pushing for him.”
Undercut
Rice is believed to want West Ham to be properly compensated for his departure [Football Transfers, 2 June] but the Gunners aren’t going to bump up their offer just because he would like them to.
His personal preferences are widely thought to be to stay in London, and while that appeared to mean a return to Chelsea for the longest time their struggles left them outside the Champions League places and now Arsenal are considered favourites.
If the midfielder has narrowed the options down to one then that doesn’t help the Irons’ hopes of getting the money they want, in a market that would otherwise appear well set to provide it.
It may ultimately come down to whether he is 100% set on the Emirates or whether that is just his preference currently.
In theory, with an option on the club’s side leaving two years on Rice’s contract, the hierarchy could flatly refuse any offer that doesn’t reach nine figures on the basis that it is anything but new information that they want that much.
The club surely doesn’t want to sour the relationship with their star skipper, although it would take a stark deterioration of matters for that to happen.
But Arsenal look set to move on both Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey this summer so they are under pressure themselves to wrap up their priority target as first replacement, so if they know the price and want him it may be as simple as paying it.