Author: Amrit Santlani
Arsenal are on the verge of winning the race to sign West Ham United captain Declan Rice after an offer of 105 million pounds was accepted. Rice will become Arsenal’s club record signing, overshadowing the £72 million fee they paid for Nicolas Pepe. Both Arsenal and West Ham are currently in negotiations over the structure of the fee, but there has been a major breakthrough in talks after Mikel Arteta’s side tabled their third offer.
West Ham had previously rejected two bids from Arsenal, with Manchester City also entering the race for the 24-year-old. However, after seeing their offer of 90 million pounds for Rice rejected, the three-time champions decided to give up, leaving Arsenal free in their pursuit.
Rice led West Ham to their first major trophy in 43 years by winning the UEFA Europa Conference League title. The Englishman joined West Ham in 2014 and has been at the club ever since. The player made his debut in 2016-17 and since then has played 245 games, scoring 15 goals. He was also called up 43 times at international level, becoming a regular under Gareth Southgate.
With his current contract set to expire in 2024, the club had no choice but to buy a player who was on the radar of many clubs around the world, including Bayern Munich.
Arsenal’s offer of £100 million, plus £5 million in add-ons, would see them equal the British transfer record set by Manchester City when they signed Jack Grealish from Aston Villa.
At the beginning of June, English midfielder Jude Bellingham joined Real Madrid from Borussia Dortmund for a whopping fee of £88.5 million, but that figure could rise to £115 million if add-ons are activated.