Arsenal are reportedly ahead of rivals Chelsea and Manchester City in the race for the potential £100million transfer of West Ham United midfielder Declan Rice.
Both Chelsea and City are said to be keen on signing Rice as well, but a report from Football Insider suggests Arsenal are in the strongest position for the £100million-rated England international at the moment.
The report says Arsenal are in pole position as Rice wants to stay in London, while the Gunners also look to have the edge over Chelsea as they’ll be able to offer Champions League football next season.
This would be a superb signing for Arsenal if they can pull it off, with Rice looking like one of the finest midfielders in the country for some time now, and one of the top players outside the traditional big six clubs.
Arsenal would surely do well to bring in a younger player like Rice in midfield, with Thomas Partey, Jorginho and Granit Xhaka not getting any younger.
Mikel Arteta’s side are likely out of the title race now but came very close to toppling Manchester City, so a signing like Rice coming in this summer could make all the difference in next year’s race.
Don’t want to see Declan leave – but if he does, Arsenal would be slightly better than seeing him in a Chelsea or Spuds shirt (not that the latter is ever going to happen). My question to him about Arsenal though, would be ‘are you sure?’ Arsenal play god football and ave a good manager, but they’re not going to win anything (which I thought was Declan’s reason for wanting out), as this season’s implosion in the league shows. They’re a possible FA/Carabao Cup contender – but so are West Ham. Might be better staying at the London Stadium until a genuinely big club come calling…