Jacob Steinberg is reporting this evening that Arsenal are closing in on a £100m deal for Declan Rice from West Ham.
This is a painful moment for many Chelsea fans. We’ve been linked with the midfielder year after year but never put our money where our mouth was. Now after two seasons where we’ve been badly hurt by the lack of a midfielder of exactly his profile, we’ve dropped out of the Champions League and will have to watch him go to our rivals.
There is a silver lining however. In the piece Arsenal’s interest in Chelsea target Moises Caicedo is noted, but there’s no way they will be signing both. If Rice makes the switch, we should have a clear run at the Brighton man – not that that will make it an easy signing by any means. The Seagulls are making quite the habit of taking us to the cleaners.
Arsenal are closing on a deal for Declan Rice and are expected to pay over £100m for the West Ham midfielder if add-ons achieved #whufc https://t.co/ebI76Rhg4L
— Jacob Steinberg (@JacobSteinberg) June 12, 2023
In the end though, wouldn’t you rather have Rice for £100m than Caicedo for the £80m it will reportedly cost to sign him? That £20m gets you a player with hundreds more Premier League appearances under his belt, a decent bit of European experience (including the UEFA Conference League won at the weekend) as well as established relationships and chemistry with his England teammates like Mason Mount, Reece James and Ben Chilwell.
We should have just paid what it took three or even four years ago…
Arsenal fan here. I think Arsenal will try and buy both but will need to sell three or four players before then can afford Caicedo so the opportunity is there for anyone who can act quickly.
I back Arsenal to sign both.
I cannot understand, why everyone doesn’t use the term , installments.
Thank you Marina!!
Instead of Rice, we got Havertz!