You have to question the play here, West Ham within 24hrs of winning a European cup, confirmed Rice had played his last game for the club and would be moving on despite them not having any bids in for him. That’s crazy in itself, but you then get Arsenal bidding and us hearing the player ONLY wants London and Arsenal!
Enter City, we are linked but no bid sent in? So what’s the point in all this? If h is so clear and open he only wants Arsenal then you have to wonder why Ars are preparing a 3rd improved bid? WH have already stated he’s off, Arsenal are his only option and it’s them who have only bid…. Hmmm. If all that was the case then you’d think two things would happen, A) Arsenal hold firm knowing it’s only them in the race, B) He’d probably be holding a shirt of theirs by now.
The fact none of that’s happened suggests it’s not as clear cut as the Arsenal camp (club or fans) are making it out to be. Rice also comes across as an intelligent lad, he’s not daft and won’t burn bridges, he’s also a fan of several of our players and knows several too! He’d listen to City regardless of his preferred option, fuck me id love to smash Jennifer Anniston but I’d listen to Pink if she expressed an interest too! I’m not daft, and neither is Rice.
This is running too slow to be as it’s suggested, City are in no rush and I’m sure are trying to wrap up other transfers first before moving on to this if we have a genuine interest. We rarely do multiple deals at the same time, we may express our interest but we tend to wrap one up then move on to the next. There’s a reason West Ham and the player are holding out here, I’m not suggesting he won’t end up at Arsenal but I’m sure he’d like to hear what we have to say first before deciding 100%.