Man City have thrown a spanner in the works of Arsenal’s pursuit of West Ham’s Declan Rice as the Premier League champions have declared their interest in the England international.
The midfielder is certain to leave West Ham this summer and has been heavily linked with a move to Arsenal over the last few months but on Thursday, it was reported by The Athletic’s David Ornstein that Man City have serious interest and are expected to make an offer for the 24-year-old soon.
However, Manchester Evening News are now reporting some good news for Arsenal fans; they declare that although City are interested in Rice, they are yet to turn it into a bid as they are weighing up what their midfield should look like next season.
Ilkay Gundogan has left the Champions League winners and could be followed by Bernardo Silva, while Mateo Kovacic is set to arrive from Chelsea. City are still working out how they want to progress from here and until then, there will be no offer for Rice.
Rice may want to join Arsenal even if Man City bid but the Premier League champions’ presence will worry the Gunners. Therefore, while the Manchester club are still deciding what to do, the North London outfit need to pounce and submit their final offer.
The Gunners so far have tried to get West Ham to lower their demands and their last bid of £90m was rejected by the Hammers as they hold out for £100m.
Arsenal need to match that soon before Man City come in and hijack their number-one target for this summer.
How good is this Rice, or are we being brainwashed by English media who is bent on pushing in one of there national team players into Arsenal, with a highly organised hype? For sure, buying both Rice and Havertz and selling Xhaka and Partey at the same time will be one of the fatal mistake Arsenal will do this season. Arteta rejected the entrance of Partey three seasons ago, but he hardly win any match without him at the defensive midfield position, especially if two from the aggressive trio of Martinelli, Nketiah and Nelson is on the pitch. The Trossard G Jesus Saka are too soft and non aggressive. They require at least two of the former trio to mix up with them to instigate enough bite. Arteta’s inexperience has come to bare now.
Why don’t Arsenal management pay the last 10 millions if not let them pay 80millions foe Moise
For sure the worst opinion I’ve heard about arsenal in a long while . Nelson and nketiah are just not good enough , xhaka as an 8 ? Every other midfielder that plays as an 8 is significantly better . Arsenal need rice as he brings organisation , is a leader , and stands up in big games . Partey is good against poor teams , when he’s fit that is , which isn’t very often
Thank you. We do not need rice as far as I’m concerned, he is a young promising talent in westham by their standard and he will be lower with arsenal standards, we need an experienced player and not one we will end up paying for and still have to train him to be better
So dumb
If we lost Partey this season because we want to build a team or trust the process or whatever. That could be the biggest foolishness of the century.