Saturday, October 12, 2024

Report: Arsenal submit £100m bid for Declan Rice

Arsenal have submitted a new bid for Declan Rice, offering to pay West Ham £100m + £5m in add-ons for the 24 year old.

It’s a huge push to bring in Mikel Arteta’s top target, but as yet the Hammers have not accepted the bid – instead negotiations continue over the payment terms.

How much further Arsenal are willing to push remains to be seen, and how much further the club can realistically push is another thing. With West Ham expecting another bid from Man City, the situation remains on something of a knife-edge, and it may come down to the will of the player.

This is the Gunners’ third bid for the England international, and we now have to wait and see what happens next.

In the meantime, the arrival of Kai Havertz from Chelsea is expected to be made official today.

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Bob McNabs Eyebrows

Insane money

Gabe

He he really worth the amount?

Moronic Inferno

Yes.

George Peace

Seems like a large sum… but I comfort myself with the memories of going through a few transfer windows with Wenger where we spent nothing (or actually made a profit). Maybe we can afford Rice now due to Arsene squirreling away cash for so long? :p

PeteyB

It is kinda mad. I know Kovacic is significantly older, and Madison is leaving a relegated club, but it does seem those players are moving for more reasonable fees.
But as sit was said on the Arsecast, if he is successful we’ll forget the fee. He led WHU to their first trophy 🏆 in years. If he lifts the EPL next may it will be well worth it.

Chrispy

Mental amount of cash

If we get this over the line, a lot of pundits and general gobshites will need to wind in their anti Arsenal ‘always trying to get players on the cheap’ agenda.

Goonerrific

They can revert to “Edu doesn’t know what he’s doing – the money is ridiculous” – that’s one fight we’ll never win.

The Optimist

Exactly, just don’t listen to the morons that know fuck all about managing football teams. Nearly all of them are failed managers & the ones that haven’t managed are just a bunch of divs.

Cliff Bastin

I hope West Ham get relegated.

Scrubbychubby

That’s an absolutely massive bid. Going back 10 years or so and I’d have never thought we’d see the day when Arsenal would be spending this kind of money.

Also kind of amazing that West Ham STILL haven’t accepted. Surely can’t see the bidding going much higher…..

Chapeau

Strange how many people are saying this is a massive bid like the first 2 bids weren’t. They’re only getting a higher bid because they’ve managed to stall for Man City to get into it

Scrubbychubby

Sorry, so anyone saying this is a massive bid is automatically suggesting that the first two bids aren’t? That’s silly and you just made it up. No one is suggesting that the first two bids weren’t massive bids. Just this one is over the 100 million mark which is truly gargantuan – one of the biggest fees of all time.

chepetin

You’ve misread what he wrote. Look at it this way:

“Strange how many people are saying this is a massive bid like (as if) the first 2 bids weren’t (massive bids).”

He’s saying that all three are massive bids but people are only reacting to the size of the third one.

Torterrier

This is getting ridiculous. I can’t see us competing with whatever the oil fiends bid next.

Arsenio

Oil can’t compete with ‘merican cattle money 😁

Qwaliteee

“More beans Mister Kroenke?”

”Hell, it smells like you boys have had enough already…..”

Arslet

Rice is a good player and someone we probably need as another leader when Xhaka leaves but that’s insane money.

If WH are bitching about now just walk away.

Henkamp

Exactly this! If they reject this, JUST WALK THE FUCK AWAY!

I wonder if there are not cheaper and even better options hiding away from plain sight on the continent or even somewhere in South America. West Ham playing hardball is driving me nuts.

And when are we going to start learning to price our players right? Heard Balogun can leave for 35M! That’s atrocious.

If another club in England had their academy player produce the numbers he did in France, they would be selling for nothing less than 50M!

Fezec

West Ham are understandably squeezing as much as they can out of this and City have so much free money they could just blow us away. This could get ridiculous.

£100m is enough. At some point arsenal have to put the harvester in Declan’s paddy field. If you want to come to us, go tell West Ham you’re not signing for City.

I’d rather walk away than sell our soul trying to keep up with a (probably) corrupt petroclub

freezedawg of sweden

Walk away 20 mil ago

Heavenly Chapecoense

Let go, get Victor Osimhen. This is release clause money for plenty of top strikers plus this money spent means Balogoun sold.

chepetin

I don’t agree with you much Heavenly but I do think you are right in this case, that this means Balogun gets sold. We are valuing him at 50m. Xhaka gets sold for what, 13m? If we get somewhere in the 30-35m neighborhood from the Middle East for Partey, then those three sales have essentially paid for Rice. So we lose a striker who didn’t play for us last season, along with two guys who needed to be replaced soon because of age, and with that money we bring in our midfield mainstay for the next 6-7 years hopefully. I’m… Read more »

NW5Gooner

I know Rice is pivotal to our plans. I know how much Arteta wants him. I know how willing the owners are to publicly back the manager. But I also know that West Ham know that, and are swiftly moving from ‘being smart about it’ to being idiots. There’s a not insignificant part of me that now wants to see us walk away and swoop in for a super secret, great value ‘plan B that we had all along’. I’m torn. I want the player. I want the statement. But I also want to see us walk away and stick… Read more »

Anon

As long as we sign somebody good I don’t think I care any more. West Ham are taking the piss.

Eric Blair

Sure, why not, it’s not as if we haven’t done it before.

I understand all the reasons why we want Rice and why his profile and skill set is not available in others in the market right now, but surely we can find someone who can do that job successfully for us at a lower price which will allow us to invest in other players, either purchasing new ones or keeping ones we’d rather not sell. I’m sanguine either way at this point.

Dada

Hear Hear!

Subsidian

Well said, with one of the most pertinent parts being the statement Arsenal are trying to make. Being English, a leader, a future captain of the national team etc, these things that say ‘prestige’ in the Premier League all add intangible millions to the price. This has to be the limit though!

Ethan Hunt

Yup this..echo my sentiments exactly…

Ealing

I hope there’s a take it or we leave it note note attached to it. It would be insane to become involved in a protracted bidding war.

Chapeau

I hope that’s written all over the first page for those wankers to see

Anon

And the last page says FUCK OFF in really big letters

Salibas bank account

This is it. I don’t think we can go higher than this.

Hammers will try to get a better payment structure and I guess som compromise can be found, but if this bid isn’t accepted in some form we should walk away.

I really want the player but at some point you have to draw a line in the sand.

Let’s hope this is enough. I really do believe Rice will choose us if given the chance.

Rice, Rice, baby!

Qwaliteee

Yep, well said.

£100m plus the £5m in add ons should be enough, providing we can reach an agreement with the repayment structure.

As for the price, it’s market forces – you want the best, you have to pay top dollar.

The trouble is, a lot of idiots in this fanbase want their cake and eat it.

The Premiership and The Champion’s League trophies on a fixed 20% discount. Ain’t gonna happen.

Cannon and ball and arsen’all

If it’s the difference between winning the league or not, then that extra £20/£30m is chump change really.
We need a certain type of player at no.6 to implement Arteta’s vision – and we are buying the best available.
Who cares how much he costs if it makes the difference between winning the league (and generating higher commercial revenue as a result), not like it’s coming out of my pocket

John C

The business model for the top clubs isn’t trading players but commercial revenue and prize money, which is why trying to replicate Brighton is foolish.

City have got nearly £300m from winning the treble so the costs benefits of recruiting the best players potentially massively outweight the costs.

Cannon and ball and arsen’all

Absolutely – and we also slashed our wage bill last season by having a young squad on lower wages than experienced players.. I saw a stat that our entire wage bill was less than United’s top 5 earners combined – this approach has given us leeway to spend some whilst improving our margins between commercial revenue and outgoings (wages) to keep us within FFP.. In-terms of spend I expect us to recoup around 50% of our spend via sales this summer (KT, Balogun, Xhaka, Partey, Mari, holding and possibly taveres and/or lokonga should net £100m or so), so effectively I… Read more »

Oberon

Coming from someone who clearly couldn’t negotiate their way out of a paper bag!

ArsensArmy

This is not the arsenal that I want to see shelling out huge wads of cash for the player that will change everything. I don’t want to have a transfer approach that is anything like city’s. Surely more affordable options were available for a player that could achieve a similar role. At that price we could of purchased three midfielders.

Arsenio

So going from offering well under what they apparently wanted, to 5m over… Just odd.

Blueberry

Clearly they asked what they wanted and said enough with your BS after city’s move and paid everything they wanted so that they can’t bi*** about it anymore

Chapeau

That’s how negotiations work. You’d know that if you’ve been in one. If they accept this, we’d have successfully met at the middle between their valuation of 120m and ours of 90m

ArsensArmy

Wouldn’t in the middle be 60m?

Redbaron

Do we have FFP wiggle room for this sort of spending (inc wages)? I’d have expected some departure activity by now.

Look at Chelsea. Last year everybody was saying they need to trim down the squad and now they are gouging Saudi + PL clubs (inc us) to recover most of money spent in signing “deadwood”. Meanwhile we can’t even sell bankable players.

Cliff Bastin

I have a feeling we’ll sell Xhaka, Partey and maybe Pepe.

Alex

There’s a good article on the athletic that covers this. Basically the windfall of champions league qualification, stadium revenue, shirt sales etc and lowering the wage bill has helped. I can’t remember the ins and outs as I read it whilst cradling a newborn. What I got from it was we’re in a good financial position overall

Chapeau

Don’t worry. We’ll just ship Pepe, Holding, and Cedric to Saudi.

ChickPEA

Pépé would be a great shift, as I fear no one else will take him for more than a few quid.

Daveo

FFP…🤣

Arsemouth

We’re winning the league and the transfer window!

Ebo

Shhh keep it quiet pal that’s a jinx if I’ve ever heard one

sAMa

If Westham want more money Arsenal should work away, we have tried.

Chapeau

Sure we have to work at home too to get close to winning the title

sAMa

I see what you are trying to do there 😏

Dwd

Wow. This is getting insane. How rich are the premier league clubs? To think that Newcastle were bought for about 300 million. Can we just buy 50 percentage of West Ham then take the players we want and then sell again!! Just an idea.

arsenal

Haha quite a genius thought! Although it may not be practical, that’s some thinking Dwd!

Jeremy Clifford

And we’re buying our way to heaven

Jeremy Clifford

Luckily, it’s not my money

El Mintero

Ridiculous being dragged into a bidding war now. This is too much for this player. If we get him, then pressure on him will be immense.

Tobi6footplus

Let’s goooo!!!!

Tom 007

If WHU play ball. Let’s take 80M and get Caicedo and keep the balance…

Nainsley Aitland Miles

I don’t think 80m gets Caicedo as it seems like Chelsea really want him. If we enter an auction with them, the price would creep up to around 100m.

PeteyB

Again one would think some player power must be there. I kinda hope the Caicedo camp is stalling with Chelsea, hoping for a Champions League club to come for him.

Heavenly Chapecoense

Caicedo, 1 goal two assists, for that much? Is the valuation of this guy based on youtube videos?

Graham

He’s a defensive midfielder my friend. Primary job is to start the play and break up opposition attacks not rack up goals and assists.

Jackie

You don’t judge DMs on their goal output.

Ethan Hunt

Ehem…I actually kinda of agree with you…His perceived value rocketed from 4 to 70 ..80 mil only after Arsenal showed an interest in him last season….Alexis McAlister showed better form at the WC and yet was sold recently for only 35 mil…Not saying Caicedo is not a good player but for a season showing that’s too much…And he was not even their best player last season. For me I rather wait and see how he performed this season first before commiting…If Chelsea got him first, so be it coz there is no upside buying a player at 80 mil. At… Read more »

mark pope

If this isn’t enough, it’s time to walk away. In fact I’m pretty uncomfortable at this price.

Deano

Must have a decent idea of whether the player wants to come to us. If yes he needs to push a bit himself.

Frankly if they knock that back though we need to move on.

mistercp

The issue is with payment structure not with the total fee offered.
If we can sort that out we’ll have a deal as, crucially, the player wants us.

Bill Hall

If they don’t except that they can shove off, it’s an insane amount of money and as good as he is, he is not worth it!

Qwaliteee

Accept.

Fatgooner

Stupid money. Declan Rice is worth nowhere near this amount of cash. We should have offered WHU about 80 million quid and told them to either take it or leave it. There are other quality defensive midfielders out there: Rice is not the be-all-and-end-all. A world-class striker is maybe worth that kind of dough, but not a player like Rice. BTW:I don’t believe that Man City were ever interested in Rice: if they were then they would have probably got him. Edu and Arteta have been played like a £10 fiddle. The “interest” from City was probably manufactured by Karen… Read more »

Ealing

I fully agree. If we get the player there will be bittersweet feeling to it. If not there’s a whole month to find the right player

Eric Blair

With Xhaka and probably Partey on their way out there is a glaring need for recruitment in that part of the pitch. CDM is not a position with a huge amount of quality options in the market at the moment. Realistically, Rice and probably Caicedo are the only surefire options to hit the ground running and the prices reflect this. Add in that all the big clubs are looking to recruit in this area meaning a lot of competition, plus Rice is the captain of a rival London team and probable future England captain and the fees don’t seem too… Read more »

Eric Blair

With Xhaka and probably ‘other international midfielder’ on their way out there is a glaring need for recruitment in that part of the pitch. CDM is not a position with a huge amount of quality options in the market at the moment. Realistically, Rice and probably Caicedo are the only surefire options to hit the ground running and the prices reflect this. Add in that all the big clubs are looking to recruit in this area meaning a lot of competition, plus Rice is the captain of a rival London team and probable future England captain and the fees don’t… Read more »

Fatgooner

Bollocks.

There’s a whole world out there. Did we take a good look around Europe and South America? There were other options of we tried to look for them. Remember: we still need to make more signings. Now we’ve spent a huge chunk of our budget.

John C

What is our budget?

Daveo

Exactly…”our” budget. Who fucking cares how much one billionaire pays another billionaire!?

John C

No one cares!!

But what Rice signing represents to the club it’s worth the money. He represents ambition, he shows we’re a serious football club and he’ll give the whole club a boost.

Daveo

I agree. Get ‘er done!

Dmitri

Would you have had the patience to wait for a signing either of those places to acclimatise to the PL? The fee is astronomical, true, but you’d be getting a PL ready player, who is exactly what the gaffer wants.

Eric Blair

But do you want ‘potential’ which may or may not work out, and would probably take a while to acclimatise, or do you want the ready made version who is good to go from day one and have a real crack at the title this season? The second one simply costs more. Is it worth it? Depends if you’re realistic about challenging for the title this coming season or not.

sAMa

The fact that we want to show the world we can also spend big doesn’t mean we should go around and be spending foolishly. Money is hard to make I know it’s not my personal money but from wherever pocket the money is coming from I believe the person is not plucking the money from trees. Declan Rice is good but is he worth the money and trouble? No.

Nainsley Aitland Miles

I don’t reckon the interest from City is manufactured. Rather, the fact it’s widely publicised since January that Mikel wants Rice has likely added an element into City wanting to sign him instead.

It’s double jeopardy. City losing Gundogan and Arsenal signing Rice, the gap significantly narrows.

It’s also the reason why City won’t sell Cancelo to Arsenal, even though he’s for sale.

Qwaliteee

At last, some common sense. 👏🍺

ChickPEA

If we do manage to sell Partey for around £35-40m and Xhaka for £15-20m that’ll soften the blow. But we’ll still have to buy another midfield player.

John C

I disagree, he is worth it as you’re not just buying a very talented player but a character and leader whose the right age with a proven track record in the premier league.

The acquisition of Rice, Havertz and Timber would put the age profile of the squad in place where only small alterations will be needed for the foreseeable

Fatgooner

I can’t wait for Havertz to join: I’m sure he’ll turn us into Premier League and Champions League winners.

Heavenly Chapecoense

Buy Havertz and be forced to sell Balogun or ESR now or in January. Sound a good plan.

John C

Why?

John C

I personally think that the Havertz signing has the ability to unlock ESR on the left because i just don’t think he can play the entire left side like Martinelli does.

Balogan on the other looks like he wants to go regardless.

John C

You wouldn’t have bought Henry or Bergkamp so your expectations shouldn’t be taken seriously.

Before writing off Havertz ask yourself how many goals you think Odegaard would score as a lone front man and then try and expand your mind to the possibility that others might actually know what they’re doing.

Qwaliteee

You and Lee Gunner should get married.

The Optimist

We’ve played this brilliantly in my opinion. We’ve kept West Ham waiting with them knowing that Rice wants to sign for us, hopefully making them a bit nervous about whether the increased offer will come in & questioning whether they should have rejected the City offer & then we come in with a big offer like this that will appease them in a moment of doubt. It’s a guessing game for all right now, but that how I’m seeing it. If we don’t get him now, nobody can fault Arsenal’s strategy & ambition, but the concern will be other clubs… Read more »

Andy

Would rather look to the Spanish League, there are a few midfielders as good if not better than Rice. Rice is definitely not worth £100m

Daveo

Inflation is pretty nuts. I remember when rice was about £1 per lb…
Now we’re at £500,000 per lb. Fuck…

Der32

Barella is a good player too. More of a box to box midfielder but would be able to slot into Xhaka’s role.

Emi Rates

Only 105 million??? God how stingy!!! No wonder we never sign any good players!

IamsterdamGooner

That’s crazy money. I know he’s a good player and all that, Prem ready. But man, there’s sooo many good footballers around that you think realistically we should be able to get 2 or 3 of him from any other league for that sort of money. Personally I think it WHU have been smoking them bubbles and we need to back out. Only cost that much because he’s English, it’s WHU’s captain, not England’s or Man Utd or Liverpool or who ever noo, he is West Hams captain. £100.000.000??? GTFOH man

Dmitri

Could you name drop 2 or 3 of those midfielders you think are as good or better?

Heavy Gunner

Morning all! I hope we get Declan Rice to Arsenal. BUT- one thing that perturbs me with all this bargaining between agents/clubs and bantering on social media is the fact that we really lose sight of the human aspect of the whole saga. I’m too well aquainted with the mechanisms of the modern football business to not see why our club has to be competitive with the other ‘powers that be’, including all the TV and media interest in the financial bucket , but it makes me wonder- where are the players in all this circus of insanity? The Saudis… Read more »

om suley

your post reads like an early version of chatGPT

Oddo

I’d walk away if WH reject it.

For that we can get Caicedo and Lavia.

Vonnie

If this isn’t accepted we should walk away and find another player. Rice isn’t all that, there’s probably someone as good out there for half the price, and if he really wanted to come he’d make it happen. Let him stay where he is or sit on the City bench, West Ham are taking the piss.

Man Manny

This is outrageous! I hope it is inserted in a take-it-or-we-walk-away envelope.
I have never been convinced about the wisdom of paying £100m for one player, be it Rice or Caicedo. We could get two players that improve the first team with that sum – and some change left over.
If this deal goes through, we must win the EPL, maybe a Cup and go far in the CL to justify this obscene outlay!

Red Arrow

Man City purposely bidding up Rice fee to make us spend a large part of our transfer budget. Don’t think they were seriously interested in him.

Eric Blair

Bank of England Club

Qwaliteee

The Bank of Howdy Doody.

Baz

Couldn’t give two fucks what the fee is. Why is everybody an accountant now?
If it is within FFP and the club are happy to pay it why does anybody care what the fee is?
Be awesome if we get him. Could turn out to be another strong transfer window for us.

Qwaliteee

Well said. 👍🍺

Daveo

Couldn’t give two fucks about FFP either … £ity and Chel£ki clearly don’t and neither does the FA, if they did they’d have docked £ity points and we’d be champs, but we know it’s a slap on the wrist coming probably 5 years down the road.

Savage

At least if we don’t get this one, nobody can claim the club weren’t trying.

Nobody complaining about our owners now!

Frog In Ze Room

On one side this is insane money. On the other we cannot reproach this wonder of a club to have try absolutely everything to get the player we wanted. It is up to the player now as Shitty gold will be able to match whatever nonsense. Declan speak up now!

JesusLovesGunner

I think this should be the maximum we should offer.
I think Rice is a huge upgrade and I rate him highly, Weakening WH while strengthening us massively
But then again, this is huge sum of money that we cannot afford to go wrong. And we are also strengthening WH financially

I’m not at all concerned about strengthening West Ham. Even with £100m to play with this summer, they won’t be anywhere near the top 4 next season.

West Ham really owe it to Rice to accept the offers from both clubs and let the player himself decide. But the greed in football these days, they’ll probably only accept the highest offer.

It’s hard to see how we can win this race. Whatever fee we offer, City will offer £5m more and higher payment up front. Whatever salary we offer, City will offer £50,000 more pw.

If he chooses Arsenal, it will be solely for footballing reasons which would really say something about the Mikel effect.

Scrubbychubby

And something about Rice himself – not many players would choose not to go to City if the option is there.

Beef

Is it ‘greed’ to accept the highest offer? What?

Qwaliteee

We finally show some top club ambition and the hair shirt mob are flogging themselves stupid. Relax, you idiots, you may still get what you want if City table a bid that is acceptable to West Ham and Rice chooses Pep over Arteta. Then you can watch City walk the title and look forward to us parading the invisible Self Sustaining Model trophy up to Islington Town Hall. Honestly, some of you make me sick. We’re going for it, we’re pulling out all the stops – and all you can do is moan and whinge about money that isn’t yours.… Read more »

John

if WHU is still playing hardball, we should just walk away. Know, an insane amount of time & effort was spent to get here and alternate options are limited, but we absolutely shouldn’t go beyond this. Not worth it.

This has to be it. Time to walk if WHU want a penny more. There’s got to be options outside the Prem that’ll cost much less.

Fred

The way West Ham fans are jonesing for him to end up at City makes me 🤢

Fred

sick

Qwaliteee

They don’t want to see us successful.

We’re the biggest club in London, end of. And they know it.

Nainsley Aitland Miles

Over the years we given them Wilshire, Ljungberg, Almunia, Jenkinson, Winterburn, Suker, Wright, Hartson. Talk about ungrateful.

Der32

They just don’t want him to end up to another London club. Whereas City? They wouldn’t mind as much. City lives in its own bubble, bypassing FFP rules and buying whichever players they want helmed by the best manager in the planet. They’re in a different stratosphere.

Kashif

Hi, eid greetings from Lahore.
I never thought i would ever see 100 m pounds bid and arsenal in same sentence at arseblog news. Historic day indeed.

mistercp

Did anyone really expect a porn baron not to try and screw us as hard as possible? Maybe we should throw in a few dildos…

Ayo

Just read on *The Athletic* that city has pulled out of the race to sign him.

Scrubbychubby

Interesting – and adds credence to the idea that they enter these races to push the price up with little intention of actually signing a player. Arsenal’s was the only offer on the table and just like that, City’s bid has ‘cost’ Arsenal another 15 million at least.

Fatgooner

And Pep is laughing his head off. That’s less money for us to invest in other key areas.

Like I said: Edu and Arteta have been played like a fiddle.

Naive

Qwaliteee

If we sign the player, Edu and Arteta have merely paid the selling clubs price that they’ve been asking for all along.

Your desperation to seek attention by chatting shit knows no bounds.

Bill Hall

Yes he isn’t worth that much!

Filpo

We should probably do the same and pull out the last offer. West Ham can eat what they cooked.

whoopsiedaisy

Fried Rice

Pat Fried Rice with Egg

City has left the chat!
Can I change my name now?

Qwaliteee

Go for it mate. 😊👍🍺

Man Manny

UPDATE: “City drop out of race to sign Rice. Won’t match or better Arsenal’s bid.” Were they even in the race or has Arsenal been played?
I don’t care as long as we get our man. It could have been cheaper though.

Jon

Les do dissssss

TeeCee

This is ridiculous. I read yesterday that Man U have pitched with a swap deal for, er, Harry Maguire.
Now, I have some old crap in my garage that I’m sure that nobody else would pay for and yet I want rid of. So, to save the club some money, why don’t I swap Declan Rice for, say, a busted lawnmower?

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