Declan Rice

[supercity88]

I posted last night something felt a little strange with this transfer.

Kind of left the offer as a your move Arsenal that then gets into bidding war territory something we don’t normally enter.

That's how the media are making it feel, but in practice we've made our bid and then we'll make another one. What Arsenal do is irrelevant if Rice wants us.

 

[waspish]

Just can't see why we would be this publicly in for him if he hadn't given us the nod. West Ham surely aren't selling him to the highest bidder, they'll get their £100m one way or another, and then they'll have enough respect to let him go to whoever they wants?

It’s at the West Ham end having public benefits them!

 

[Goatmeal]

And anthony!

There was a time the rags would have been all over this.
Thank you Malcolm Glazer. Gone but never forgotten

 

[BlueRain]

daft money this.

It is - but to be fair we've not seen anything other than daft in Football transfer fee's for a loooong time

My take on Rice is that we see Arsenal as a genuine threat so either:

a) We really rate him and want him - in which case we are willing to get into a bidding war
b) We are just pushing up the price to weaken Arsenal's budget for other targets... (probably unlikely)

 

[Chopper2115]

I’m guessing Arsenals next bud will be acceptable

But they will want to see if City want to bid again.

 

[ManCityGR!]

So they want 100+ for Rice??
We should retract our interest. What a joke they are. Let them find better fools.

We should go for Barella of Inter, or Kimmich with the same money and they are much better players I think. Or even De Jong of Barcelona that I guess with 70-80 millions we would get him.

 

[richards30]

So they want 100+ for Rice??
We should retract our interest. What a joke they are. Let them find better fools.

We should go for Barella of Inter, or Kimmich with the same money and they are much better players I think. Or even De Jong of Barcelona that I guess with 70-80 millions we would get him.

Or all 3 of them are not for sale? Or Pep doesnt want them?

 

[alexmcity]

What would Arsenal do? They may wait for our 2nd bid and try to match it. That may be their best strategy.

But, at the same time, if they are too patient and willing to play a long game, they may lose out both on Rice and other targets. So, they'll bid within the next 6-7 days. Think the deal will be decided within 10 days. W Ham will have to find a replacement too, they don't have the whole summer to negotiate either.

 

[Gumzy97]

So they want 100+ for Rice??
We should retract our interest. What a joke they are. Let them find better fools.

We should go for Barella of Inter, or Kimmich with the same money and they are much better players I think. Or even De Jong of Barcelona that I guess with 70-80 millions we would get him.

Barella not leaving Italy he's rejected every proposal so far.

Kimmich is locked in at Bayern

De Jong is on massive wages

Plus Pep wants Rice, so we go for Rice. Grealish went for 100 million so of course they are going to ask for that.

 

[malg]

I find negotiation a bit tiresome but some people love it.

To me it's obvious that a package totalling £100m will do it and that City are prepared to go there. But to satisfy the ego and PR management of the West Ham leadership we have to go through this charade to make them look like masters of business.

If we'd have gone in with £100m and they said no, then I'd agree, but we haven't. I'm sure West Ham fans will say it's City that are playing games here.