Arsenal and West Ham have agreed a fee of £105m (€122 million) for England midfielder Declan Rice.
ARSENAL
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Arsenal and West Ham have reached a deal in principle to sign Declan Rice for £105 million (€122 million) after Manchester City backed out of the competition.
On Tuesday night, Arsenal made a third offer of £100 million plus £5 million in add-ons, and only minor difficulties regarding the structure of the agreement remained to be resolved on Wednesday evening. City had a £90 million proposal turned down earlier on Tuesday and did not want to outbid Arsenal.
Following Ilkay Gündogan‘s free departure to Barcelona, Pep Guardiola had Rice in mind as Gündogan’s replacement. Insiders at West Ham had anticipated that City would make Rice a better offer on Wednesday morning.
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West Ham have been demanding at least £100 million for their captain, and have leveraged City’s interest to drive up the price. The fee for the England international will exceed the £100 million City spent for Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish two years ago, Rice becoming the most expensive British player.
Chelsea, Manchester United, and Bayern Munich were also interested in signing Rice, but Arsenal has been first in line since Christmas.
West Ham rejected Arsenal’s offer of £75 million plus £15 million in add-ons last week, citing the idea to spread the guaranteed portion of the payment over five years.
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The scale of Arsenal’s bid is acceptable to West Ham, who cited Jude Bellingham’s £88.5 million move to Real Madrid as a benchmark during negotiations.
Arsenal faced losing Mikel Arteta‘s main target due to City’s proposal. Nonetheless, well-placed sources have consistently stated that Rice wishes to join Arsenal. The 24-year-old would love to stay in London because he recently became a father and is very close to his family, and finalizing terms on a long-term contract with Arsenal would not be an issue.
Arteta has made clear to Rice where he will fit into his team and has plans to build his midfield around the player and Kai Havertz, who is due to join from Chelsea for £65m (€75 million).
Havertz has played as a No 9 for Chelsea but will be used in a deeper role for Arsenal. Arteta is also close to sealing a £50 million (€58 million) deal for the Ajax defender Jurriën Timber and wants the Southampton midfielder Roméo Lavia.
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Arsenal are investing heavily in order to mount another title challenge, and they could create room for Rice by moving Granit Xhaka to Bayer Leverkusen and Thomas Partey to Juventus.
Rice’s final game for West Ham was this month’s Europa Conference League final win over Fiorentina. West Ham have recognized his desire to depart and compete at a higher level.
Rice joined after being released by Chelsea at the age of 14 and has since gone on to become one of the club’s top players. Declan Rice is known for his defensive midfield ability, will look to improve his attacking game at Arsenal.
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