Declan Rice

[Cobwebcat]

You do have to wonder. Or we do it to give another target or club a push?

I think it’s good business.

It means when we go to our next target the club know if they push for too much £ we look elsewhere.

 

[JewelZee]

I'm sure he wanted us.

But i can understand him wanting Arsenal more.

He's a London boy and Arsenal are a huge club despite our current run of silverware.

I'm not trying to be funny but can someone explain "huge club" to me? They play in a large metropolitan city and, therefore, have a lot of fans. They've had periods of success over the decades but hardly any in the past 20 years. They've never been champions of Europe and their legendary Invincibles would have finished a full ten points behind our Centurions. Anything else?

 

[Gabriel]

Never thought we would get him because I felt he would remain in London even if we had met West Ham's valuation. Maybe I'm missing someone, but was our last first-team regular born in London not SWP?

 

[meeesh]

One game ya melon

Seemed enough for Pep to make an assumption didn't it

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

One game ya melon

Bristol City?

 

[waspish]

I think City probably don't get another midfielder in this summer and we'll brief that we're comfortable with what we have in mid July. Pep will perform miracles and we'll make it 4 in a row.

The problem is when Pep goes. There's nobody comparable and we won't be able to pass on targets and sit on our high horse as much. If we don't shift from that stance a little, there may be choppy waters ahead

I’d go for Kompany if you watch the overlap interview he lives breaths football 24 hours a day he never stops thinking about tactics and coaching! When you looking for a manager that’s the type of person you need! The bloke at Brighton also is a good shout!

 

[NorthamptonBlue]

So, a few questions for a friend...
1. Did we really want him?
2. Are we glad he's going to Arsenal?
3. Is he a good player and we wish him all the best?
4. Is he now a fucking **** for choosing them over us?
I'm just so confused.

Only my take of course:

He’s a good player.
We wanted him but not at any price.
It seems he didn’t want to come here really.
There are cheaper options but not necessarily guaranteed starters.
Why would we hate somebody just because they preferred to go elsewhere? Are we 12 years old?

 

[argyle]

Isn't he a 10?

Average looking, 6 or 7 at best

 

[Bluesince1979]

I love how we say “nah he aint that good” when the bidding gets silly. Might as well say to Rice that we dont overly rate him.

Everytime time we step away from the bidding we end up with a better player

Struggling to think maguire, fred, sanchez, koubali and cucurella went on to have better careers than the ‘2nd choices’ we end up with

 

[cheekybids]

Another bit of wonderful business by the club, we've pulled this one on the Rags on loads of occasions and they fall for it everytime, make you competitor clubs overpay for mediocre players

 

[CC1]

I think we should just give Philips a chance.

Agree totally. Don’t think there’s much between them. Certainly not £105 mill

 

[Deyna18]

Just to highlight the importance of payment structure, in the current interest rates environment.
A £20m payment in 5 years equates to something in the region of £15m up front. I'd love to see the actual proposed Arsenal payment structure to calculate its value to a 100pct up front fee. I suspect its in the region of 80/85m

 

[Iassel]

The interesting unanswered question for me is why City have gone about it the way they have..

They will have spoken to Sullivan and gotten a good idea of what was acceptable, so to come in so far below that, with a payment schedule that apparently was not attractive, and then walk doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Even if it were an attempt to drive the price up you would expect us to have gone back again a chunk below Arsenal but with good payment terms to force their hand.

Can only think the club were hoping/led to believe Rice would kick up a fuss to accept the original offer and now it’s clear he won’t we have walked away..

That would mean though that the journos who said he wanted to go to Arsenal were right all along and we were all told they didn’t know shit..

 

[bluemoon32]

Only my take of course:

He’s a good player.
We wanted him but not at any price.
It seems he didn’t want to come here really.
There are cheaper options but not necessarily guaranteed starters.
Why would we hate somebody just because they preferred to go elsewhere? Are we 12 years old?

Your last comment.
I agree completely but this is bluemoon after all

 

[Bluewonder]

Just to highlight the importance of payment structure, in the current interest rates environment.
A £20m payment in 5 years equates to something in the region of £15m up front. I'd love to see the actual proposed Arsenal payment structure to calculate its value to a 100pct up front fee. I suspect its in the region of 80/85m

Agreed.

On a net present value basis, I'd imagine our front-loaded £90m is similar to Arsenal's back-loaded £105m.

 

[bluemoon32]

Agree totally. Don’t think there’s much between them. Certainly not £105 mill

We didnt get Phillips for free

 

[loio]

Im not sure what all this will do with Philips confidence as well.. no one knows if he really was involved in any way though, ask etc

 

[Barcon]

So, a few questions for a friend...
1. Did we really want him?
2. Are we glad he's going to Arsenal?
3. Is he a good player and we wish him all the best?
4. Is he now a fucking **** for choosing them over us?
I'm just so confused.

I can only speak for myself but, my answer is “no”.

 

[Tugay One Cup]

I'm gutted, more than anything. No ITK status for Fat Sam.

 

[Lee won pen]

Never thought we would get him because I felt he would remain in London even if we had met West Ham's valuation. Maybe I'm missing someone, but was our last first-team regular born in London not SWP?

Sterling?