David Ornstein of The Athletic has reported that Arsenal have submitted a bid worth up to £105m for West Ham’s Declan Rice.
The proposal is reported to be worth an initial £100m with an extra £5m in add-ons, which would make the 24-year-old the most expensive English player of all time, comes following West Ham rejecting multiple bids from both Arsenal and Manchester City for the midfielder.
The Gunners have already had a club-record offer of £75m plus a potential £15m in add-ons turned down by their London rivals. Meanwhile, earlier this week, The Hammers also rejected a similar bid from Pep Guardiloa’s side, which, although was also worth a potential £90m, would have been split into a guaranteed £80m and a potential £10m in add-ons.
Furthermore, despite The Claret and Blues chairman David Sullivan previously stating that his captain would be sold this summer, he has continued to stand firm on his £100m price tag- which, although slightly higher than Transfermarkt’s €90m market valuation of the player, is a fee which The North London side now look set to match.
Arsenal’s bid for Rice comes alongside their pursuit for Chelsea German forward Kai Havertz, who is now close to joining Mikel Arteta’s side for a fee of around £65m– as they look to bolster next season’s squad and build upon last year’s second place finish and compete in Champions League football for the first time since 2017.
Travis Levison | Get Football
