The protracted purchase of West Ham’s Declan Rice by Arsenal could soon be at an end, but it’s a fair bet that supporters of both clubs have just wanted the deal done for a while now.
Not a day seems to have gone past without there being some news about the deal, without it ever seeming to be close to completion.
That hasn’t come as a surprise to super agent, Jon Smith, one of the creators of the English Premier League, and a veteran of such transfer deals.
‘These transactions (eg Declan Rice) do not walk in a straight line. The footballer who’s on £100k a week is probably on a basic of £60k and then there’s added bonuses for either appearances, goals or England caps and so on. Gross all of that up, he plays every game and scores for fun – only then will he get his £100k a week,’ he wrote in his exclusive CaughtOffside column.
‘So it’ll be similar with this Rice deal. £100m is a lot of money, even today. I wouldn’t just be writing out the cheque, I’d be wanting to cash flow it. I’d be wanting it over the five years, three years, whatever term I would want, and then David Sullivan would obviously want it on his terms.
‘Then you ask the question is it really £100m or is it £80m? If he plays 30 games, there’s another £20m and so on and so on. Bear in mind every movement in this saga isn’t like you and me arguing over a car. I offer £30k and you want £33k – it’s not quite as simple as that because these are big sums and every movement of that decimal point is 10s of millions of pounds difference. That’s why it takes a little bit of time.’
The Gunners were a whisker away from winning their first Premier League title in 19 years last season, and but for a late-season wobble, they would’ve beaten Pep Guardiola’s Man City to the punch.
Question marks over the north Londoners defensive abilities were asked, and so to that end one has to consider whether Rice is a necessary purchase or not.
‘Do Arsenal need him? If you look at Arsenal last year they were great. They were fun, but we always knew they were fragile in as much as if you put it up them they didn’t like it. Premier League coaching staff are very clever, some of the best in the world, and they would have picked up on this over time,’ Smith continued.
‘You can see they began to stymie Arsenal’s play, and Man City in particular pushed them up high with balls over the top – a fairly simple anti-Arsenal play. Now, Arteta will be working on it. Last season was the first year that his team really worked and they were young.
‘When it goes wrong for you and you’re young you’ve still got the energy but you haven’t quite got the confidence. They probably need another two years. This year they’ll be there or thereabouts and I think if they get the players they’re being linked with they could fly – but the club have got to integrate them to make it work. I think this year will be another great year for Arsenal but 24/25 is probably the season that they could perform really well and win something.’
With a medical apparently now scheduled for the England international, it would seem that only the way in which the deal is structured is the one outstanding matter that is holding everything up.
If all parties can come to a swift agreement on that, then there’s no reason why Rice can’t be announced as a Gunners player by the end of the forthcoming weekend at the latest.