The hope is that Arsenal will end up affording what West Ham demands to let Declan Rice go and that no matter how much Manchester City wants him, the 24-year-old will choose them over the Citizens.
Even though that is what the Gunners hope for, that may not happen in the end. Rice may not end up at the Emirates; he may end up at the Etihad. So, in a scenario where the West Ham midfield engine doesn’t join Arteta’s project, who is his alternative transfer?
Many may imagine that moving for Moises Caicedo is the obvious move, but is it so? If Rice rejects Arsenal, L’Equipe claims the Gunners are keen to swoop for Monaco’s midfielder Youssouf Fofana. Fofana is a quality midfielder, and he has several suitors. Newcastle, Inter Milan, and AS Roma are some clubs Arsenal may have to beat if they are to sign the Frenchman.
If Arsenal is forced to turn to Fofana, the fact that Monaco only wants £30 million to let him go shouldn’t trouble them enough to pull off that deal. Last season, the 24-year-old managed 47 appearances for the Ligue 1 side, and that plus ten caps for France make him one of the midfielders to watch.
Anyway, it remains to be seen if Arsenal must go the Fofana route. Rice may eventually snub Manchester City, but isn’t it time that Edu and Arteta started looking at cheaper alternatives?
Darren N
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While Fofana is a very decent DM , in my opinion he lacks the all round quality of Thomas Partey who should not be sold, but should support Rice or Caicedo next season in our quest for the EPL title.
Fofana for Partey would be ludicrous Grandad and unexplainable.
Caicedo should be a No No, the Rice saga is taking too long, we should get Lavia and Fofana.
I’m interested to know why nobody is talking about kalvin Phillips. As I understand he wants to leave for game time and if rice does go there he would surely get less game time than he gets now. Plus he would be about half the price.
Just wondering if anyone can shed some light as to why this would not be an option.
Again, not as an alternative to Partey. Ask yourself this question. If Phillips is not good enough for Man shi….. why is he good enough for us?
Reggie
People should stop that conspiracy theories, if he’s not good for them, why should we go after him.
Player wise, we’re not even remotely close to their players, so some of their bench players will light up our team.
Not a conspiracy theory, its fact. He sint as good as Rice.
Spot on brother. If We end up paying over the 100 for Rice, Maaannnn
We can’t even sell our players for 40m but overpaying for Havertz and Rice.
Rice is not just the player to take us to the next level.
Maybe because his injury record isn’t good and he didn’t play regularly last season. I bet that’s also why Loftus-Cheek’s price tag is lower than £20m
It would be safer to sign Lavia, because he hasn’t got too many battle wounds yet and is much younger than them
Gai, Arsenal already table 105m for Declan Rice according to Sky sport and Daily mail news.. I don’t see Westaham saying NO to that. It also means Arteta really wants the Dude. After signing DRice I think it’s only Timber and Havertz Arsenal would buy that’s already over 200M. Except they make money from player sales. No CF this season let’s see how it will turn out at the end. Hope positive.
Yes, I also think Rice would likely be our last signing this summer. No Lavia or new CF 😥
Because he has no intention of leaving City,he said and I paraphrase “despite having played much, I’m not going to quit after 14 months…”.
I brought this up about six months ago and was told why would we want someone who’s been on City’s bench since he went there while forgetting he’d been injured for much of that time. I think he’s ideal for us, and might even have made a better fit than Havertz, especially so if we also get Rice.
He isn’t better than Partey, but then again Rice at £100m+ is a joke and Arsenal should string it out for as long as possible with no intention of buying him – just make his joining Man ‘we break all the governing rules but FIFA and UEFA are too scared of us’ City get him as late in the window as possible.
That’s what I’m talking about
Let West Ham keep playing hard, after the transfer is over and no one pays that stupid amount, let see who loses
“Arsenal should string it out for as long as possible with no intention of buying him”…. that’s classy?
That sort of conduct is befitting of Daniel Levy !
Fofana, Khéphren Thuram, Manu Koné, Caqueret – any 2 can be acquired for the price and salary of Rice, may be 3. Arteta need to have the confidence he can groom them
Arsenal could buy these three midfielders with current transfer market value respectively : Thuram (40m euros) , Onana (45m erous) and Lavia (32m euros)= 117m euros, instead of spending 120m pounds on one everpriced player, Delcan Rice ,who is also overrated.
Agree, although I like Rice as a person and player, 105GBP for a man running down his contract is insane. Its a repeat of the Youri Tilesman saga and then he leaves for free. Onana + Lavia and we have an able first team player + a back up /cup games. Edu and Mikel are playing cat and mouse just like the Mudryk case and we end up with better players! Typical Mikel!
😂😂😂😂
Looks like Arsenal have just submitted a third bid of $105m. I would assume that is a final bid.
So they’ve increased the number, but changed the currency?
So the new offer is still £82mil. 😄
I don’t think Arteta is looking for a player just to fill the role of defensive midfielder. He is obviously looking for leadership qualities and Declan Rice brings that.
West Ham last trophy was 1980 (Remeber that!?)
In 1st season as Captain, Declan Rice’s West Ham win a European Trophy
He is looking for someone who can fill it without a partner on that area so we can play two attacking midfielders. Even with Xhaka playing a bit further forward he still made a huge defensive contribution, more than we can expect of Havertz.
Rice is capable of playing the role and has played fifty games a season at club level for the last two years. Partey is excellent when he does play but plays nowhere near that number.
Next season is crucial, all top teams are going to be better and we need to strengthen significantly only to remain where we are.
That means getting proven players that we know what they will bring us and improve us. Rice is that player. Kai and Timber are talented but we do not know how they will turn out. Fofana, Zumbini, Barella and co. might fail at EPL. So with Rice its not about saving money but getting a known proven quantity that will upgrade is, and it is worth paying extra for him.
The question is how much extra. I bet you if we make a bid of 100 WH would want 110 If we offer 110 they gonna want 120 and let’s be honest at 90 we are already way above his real world valuation.
Spot on OxintheBox
It’s the cost of NOT getting Declan Rice that should be the bigger concern than a few more £mil.
‘Is it time for Arsenal to look at cheaper alternatives?’
The answer to that is, Nah, not so fast, we have unfinished business
arsenal submitted a bid of 105mil from latest report and westham still want mancity to counter the bid .. what effontry?!!. Do west Ham want the bid to keep going up to 200million?.. arsenal should call thier bluff and look elsewhere. I have said it before that caicedo was the better option. Best case scenario is that both mancity and arsenal should walk away and let rice be a free agent next season. Then we will see who loses. That 105million can be used to get fofana ( Monaco) or onana( Everton) and Ivan toney ( I have said this multiple times).ivan toney is the striker that we need and not the overrated and overhyped Declan rice
Well i for one wouldn’t want Forfano, onana or Caciedo over Rice. So as far as the player is concerned its Rice for me. The money issue, makes no difference to us.