According to former Leeds United manager Sam Allardyce, he believes that Manchester City will outpace Arsenal in the race to secure the signing of Declan Rice during this transfer window. Despite the Gunners being widely regarded as the frontrunners, Allardyce predicts that City will ultimately prevail.
Rice, who recently achieved success in the Europa Conference League with West Ham, appears to have a preference for joining Arsenal. However, numerous elite English clubs, as well as Bayern Munich, have reportedly expressed interest in acquiring his services.
Notably, Allardyce has suggested the possibility of a potential swap deal involving Kalvin Phillips, should Rice make a move to Manchester City.
Asked who he believed could sign the midfielder, he said, as quoted by the Daily Mail:
‘Man City. Somebody will go back the other way.’
Tim Sherwood then said: ‘(It) won’t be Rodri.
‘Pep will give him (Phillips) a chance’, Allardyce nodded when he mentioned the former Leeds United man.
Just Arsenal Opinion
Rice will do well at any club in the world, so we should not be surprised when he is linked with a move to the likes of City and Chelsea.
However, we just need to stay focused on what needs to be done to ensure we win the race and care less about what others are doing.
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Phillips has already stated he is going nowhere and wants to fight for his place. Allardyce knows nowt about a lot. This is a man that plays six defenders in a must win game. Total dinosaur and should be put out to graze now
I’d like to see both Rice & Phillips at Arsenal, they work well enough together for England, but I don’t suppose there’s much chance of that happening.
I wouldn’t take much notice of the old “fight for his place” cliche, if he was offered a better deal elsewhere I’m sure Kalvin would jump at the chance of regular 1st team football.
Why on earth would Man City disrupt the Rodri/Stones axis which has been pivotal to their success, to sign yet another DM when they already have a 50m back up in Phillips who will not entertain moving to East London?A question which Allardyce ought to have considered before he spouted forth.
This is not an area of concern for the citizens, though I suspect if a straight forward deal is lingering out there that can be done they may.
But I can’t see a team spending £100 mill on one player in an area they already strong in, but maybe stranger things as happen in the game.
Rice would take Stones’ place in the system and Stones would move back into his former position, they’d be beefing up two areas with the one signing. Their homegrown quality would also go up a notch. That’s how I see it should City be interested.
You need to strike fast when there are good homegrown players on the market. It can be detrimental to your team when having to utilize lesser quality players all because you must have a certain amount of them in your setup