It’s well know Arsenal are keeping tabs on West Ham captain, Declan Rice ahead of a move for the midfielder come the summer.
Arsenal recently signed Jorginho in January to provide some much needed squad depth until the end of the season. However this move will not stop Arsenal investing once again in the central midfield area come next season & Declan Rice is the player at the top of Mikel Arteta’s list.
The prospect of moving to the Emirates Stadium and working under Arteta appeals to Rice. He has seen Arteta turn Arsenal into title contenders this season and would be confident of the Spaniard’s coaching making him a better midfielder.
The England international has played a total of 221 senior appearances for West Ham since his breakthrough in 2017, however the 24-year-old is now ready for a new challenge and ideally wants to be playing Champions League football next season.
Rice has openly admitted that he wants to be challenging for the major trophies next season.
There will be plenty of interest in the summer for Rice, however Arsenal are increasingly confident of securing the 24-year-old’s signature, due to their position in the league table.
With United signing Casemiro & Chelsea signing Enzo Fernandez on Deadline Day, Arsenal have recently become the most likely destination for Declan Rice in the summer.
As previously reported last week, Rice was ‘favouring’ a move to the Emirates Stadium and that the ‘prospect of playing for Mikel Arteta’ was the main reason for his thinking.
David Ornstein has provided an update, via The Athletic podcast, on how much Arsenal could get Declan Rice for come the summer transfer window:
“The word that I am hearing from within the industry is that £75m/£80m/£85m are a more realistic figure for Declan Rice this summer.”
