By Daniel Feliciano

19th Apr, 2023 | 11:02am

Arsenal ready club-record bid for West Ham United captain Declan Rice this summer

Arsenal are ready to make a club-record bid to sign Declan Rice from West Ham United this summer, according to Fichajes.net.

Rice is expected to leave the Hammers at the end of the season after battling with relegation all season, with the Gunners seen as the front-runners for his signature ahead of Chelsea.

West Ham are said to want at least £100m to sanction his exit, but while Arsenal aren’t willing to go that high they are said to be preparing a club-record bid to bring him to the Emirates Stadium.

Arsenal’s current record signing was the £72m they spent on Nicolas Pepe in 2019, so any bid would have to exceed that amount.

It’s believed they are willing to pay around £80m to sign the England international, although Chelsea could look to gazump them.

Good start

If Arsenal want Rice in the summer, then an £80m bid is a good start to negotiations but shouldn’t be enough to get the deal over the line.

If that is their opening bid then we know they’re willing to go higher, but also West Ham have made their position clear on the matter – we want £100m.

Rice has proven in recent seasons that he is among the very best in the Premier League, if not Europe, and his skillset is unique to English players in particular.

With the fact he’s homegrown and how important he is to West Ham, there is no reason that we should be considering lowering our value of him or letting him go cheap.

He is under contract for another two years and we know his worth. We’re a far better side with Rice in it and we know how difficult it will be to replace him, so keeping him around shouldn’t be completely ruled out if someone doesn’t stump up the cash we want.