The official opening of the transfer window shouldn’t mean much – clubs and players have been negotiating since the end of the season and some paper deadline won’t change that. But it does seem to have sparked a bit of news since official bids can now go in.
Declan Rice has long been set to be one of the window’s main protagonists, and he is already at the centre of a bidding war. Arsenal have put in a bid, Manchester City are rumoured to be close behind, and even Bayern Munich are interested.
A piece on the emerging battle from the Telegraph claims that Chelsea are not out of it yet either. After years of being the favoured destination, the Blues have dropped back in the pecking order – but this piece says that we “remain in contention” and have asked West Ham to avoid making any decisions while they clear their decks for a final run at Rice.
We still don’t fancy our chances given the competition, but it does give us some hope that we’re pushing for the very best players and not settling for second best just yet. But with such top teams in the mix, West Ham are likely to get the £100m or more that they want, and it’s almost impossible to see Chelsea being able to pay for that, even if they could convince Rice they’re the right move for him.