West Ham United transfer news: Declan Rice to Arsenal 95% done as medical booked
Declan Rice’s transfer from West Ham to Arsenal in “95% done” with medicals booked in to complete the deal this week, according to the Daily Mail (3 July).
The Hammers and Arsenal agreed a £105m fee for the captain last month, but negotiations have been ongoing about the terms and structure of payment with West Ham wanting the majority paid up front.
But a deal is now edging closer to completion with Mikel Arteta’s side booking a medical for the “coming days”, with the hope of an announcement later this week.
“Arsenal are set to complete the transfers of Declan Rice and Jurrien Timber by the end of the week,” they wrote.
“The Gunners’ pending deal with West Ham over the £105million transfer of Declan Rice is ’95 per cent’ complete, while there is a verbal agreement in place with Ajax for the capture of defender Timber in a deal worth an initial £40m.
“Mail Sport understands medicals have been scheduled for both players in the coming days amid the expectation their signings can be formally completed by the weekend.
“Talks over the finer details of Rice’s move will continue on Monday with a view to reaching a full agreement in the next 24 hours.”
Finally
This has dragged on for years, but this summer always looked inevitable to really be the time when Rice was going to leave the club.
But when bids starting coming in way below the asking price it was obvious this was going to take a while to get over the line, and it now seems to finally be going that way.
Obviously the club were praying that he would find a way to stay, but they’ve got the money they wanted and an agreement to get it in the time frame they wanted now seems close.
Rice will be going to a club on the up and looking to compete for major trophies in the near future, as well as playing in the Champions League so it’s hard to begrudge him the move.
Now the attention must turn to replacing him adequately and bolstering the rest of the squad for the new season so we can be pushing towards the top of the table too in the new season.
In other West Ham news, the club could fund a move for a Chelsea outcast by signing this 20-goal striker.