Mikel Arteta is keen to add Declan Rice to his Arsenal squad for the 2023–24 season. It has already been identified that West Ham’s asking price for the 24-year-old and Manchester City’s interest are stumbling blocks to Arsenal’s ambitions.
In an update about these two impediments, there’s a revelation by the Mail that the Citizens are looking to offer Kalvin Phillips in part-exchange, but he is apparently not interested in moving to the London Stadium and intends to stay and fight for his place.
Man City are looking for ways to reduce the fee they have to pay for the West Ham No. 41. Arsenal needs to be attentive so as not to lose their top target to their main title rivals. Why don’t Arteta and Edu also consider offering a player-plus-cash deal if they can’t be bold enough to surpass the £100 million mark for him?
If you were to pick a Gunner to be part of the offer, who’d you settle on to reduce the fee the club has to pay for Rice?
I’d pick two: Fabio Vieira and Eddie Nketiah.
Nketiah would be an attractive offer to West Ham, who are looking for a striker. Gianluca Scammaca has yet to star at the London Stadium, and Michael Antonio isn’t growing any younger. David Moyes could look at Nketiah and see an option for his attack. With Havertz joining, even if he isn’t unleashed as a striker like Trossard, he could be Jesus’ backup if Nketiah plus a cash offer seal Rice’s signature.
As for Fabio Vieira, let’s agree that he had a tough first season at the Emirates. He didn’t make the impression his swoop was supposed to make. He should have proved worthy of starting in Arteta’s lineup next season. Sending him out on loan next season would have been wise, but even so, if he can help the club pay less for Rice, he ought to be included in the offer to the Hammers.
Those are my two options. What about you? Who would you offer as a player plus a cash offer for Rice?
Daniel O
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Good idea. But I would just offer Nketiah, because Vieira just had his first season
Romano just said that Arsenal are talking to Lavia’s entourage. Arsenal need to move faster, because other clubs might approach him soon and Man City could exercise their buy-back clause for him in 2024
If West Ham sell Rice to Man City, we would still have Havertz and Lavia
Romano also stated that Partey could leave because there is still no discussion about contract extension, despite the expiration date in 2025. I believe Arsenal could still offer him an extension next year, as they did to Elneny and other 30+ year-old players
@ GAI
Nketiah is the only striker that we have, if we are planning to sell Balogan (which looks likely). He is better as a striker than Jesus (even though Jesus is an all round player) and Trossard who can play a false number 9.
I do not rate Havertz if he were to come in. In fact I would prefer to try Pepe as a striker (not a winger) as he is instictive when he does not have time on his hands.
I would rather offer fringe players like Holding or injury prone ones like Tomiyasu. Would have offered Lokonga but looks like he is Burnley bound.
I hope Arsenal would try Balogun out. Nketiah and Pepe had their chances
Pepe in CF position is an interesting idea, but I think Arsenal will sell him because of his contract expiry date and unsuccessful loan in France
I agree that Holding or Tomiyasu could lower Rice’s price tag. Arsenal should clinch the deal quickly, before Man City make an official bid
Pepe as centre forward is NOT an interesting idea but it is a very FOOLISH ONE. No matter anyway ,as for 100% certainty he will be gone this summer, so its academic anyway.
It’s not a FOOLISH anything. It’s an opinion and you should not denigrate it just because you disagree. Get it yet Jon?
Ok Mr CENSOR. How about if I put it this way, to keep you happy.
Here goes: Its my OPINION that it was a foolish opinion. Presumably, you think JA is about giving opinions? So that is mine then.!
So are we then to preface EVERYTHING we ever write with “IMO” then?
Because that is what you are asking us to do, which is bonkers.
And simply because PAT, AS SO OFTEN, YOU HAVE NOT THOUGHT THROUGH WHAT YOU ARE SAYING, in your anxiety to censor plain speech .SIGH!
Without much grammar. Offer them Holding, Viera, and of course, Lakonga
I’d offer them both Fabio Viera nd Rob Holding. Maybe even add Nuno Taveres as a sweetener 😅
C o Y G
It still comes down to value!
IF Rice is worth £100mil.+ as it seems others do, then you just gotta bite the bullet and pay the price. Something Arsenal have failed to do recently… Mudryk?
According to Transfermarkt, Arsenal players that could be part of the deal:
Elneny – 9mil. Euros
Holding – 10mil.
Lokonga – 15mil.
ESR – 38mil.
Nketiah – 25mil.
Viera – 27mil.
and Nicolas Pepe, what’s he worth with 1 year and £8mil. contract?
Personally, I reckon you can throw Pepe into a deal as a sweetener….
Personally, I would be happy to get Rice for £80mil + Lokonga and Pepe.
What I find puzzling, is the fact that we were light on players last season and yet I see fans suggesting we trade two, three or four players to sign one!!!!
That means that MA has then got an even more threadbare squad for the four competitions we will compete in next season.
Talk about tying the managers hand behind his back!!
It also means we will have to replace those squad players and that our spend to buy them, reduces what is left to spend on a top player, rather than said squad players.
I suggest we only let players leave, who want to go, or coming to the end of their contracts – Xhaka – Pepe – Nelson.
As a result of Arsenal need for a powerful defensive midfielder, I would feel compellrd to make Nketiah, Balogun, Vieira, Tavares and Lonkango available for any make weight deal to get Rice across the line.
There is a report of Chelsea asking West Ham to delay the selling of Rice.
It’s also down to if the players mentioned want to go to West Ham but I think it’s rather churlish to ask us who should be used to barter in the deal. As Ken says though, offering a few of our back ups who seem more than happy to be just that is diminishing our squad.
Eddie Nketiah, Sambi-Lokonga, Rob Holding Nicolas Pepe. These are all decent players and could do a good job for a team, but just aren’t right for a team with aspirations of winning the league. If Pepe had an ounce of Rob Holding’s personality traits or Holding a smidge of Pepe’s ability, what a player they could be. Alas, it is not to be, so they must move on. But I would wish playing under David Moyes to no player.
West Ham are not interested in Fabio Viera!!!!!!!!
I don’t think many teams would be Reggie
I can see him now on his Bullworker and eating big T Bone steaks.
Let me start by saying that Rice is not worth that money at all. That’s how the football market works, especially in the Premier League. With that money we could get two international players of Latin American origin to intercept the opponent’s game. And certainly technically they would be better. I’m not saying that Rice is not enough. I’m saying that not every West Ham cannot want to solve the financial problem of the club by selling a player. This is the responsibility of everyone who enters the auction. If it is possible for a defensive midfielder to cost so much money. I mean if they had Haaland how much would they ask for 250 million pounds? Regardless of the outcome of the case, I think that money should not be saved. Let’s look at getting him brighton scouts in latin america. They have skimped, but they sell more sensibly. Also some players have to be sold anyway, because they don’t belong nor are they going to be level top class. Vieira didn’t come out in the first season, but he doesn’t seem to have the stuff of a leader, he always plays scared and never takes initiative.And he didn’t rest, and he has a disastrous course. Tavares a little. Maybe I would give him another chance because he is young. I would also sell Lokonga, I don’t think he can give him something more. He’s missing something. I don’t have a particular opinion on Balogun, I haven’t seen him before, as far as I’ve seen him this year, I think he’s a player who will be a bet, I can’t I compare the French league with the Premier League, he did quite well, but I think that now that he has a good price it would be better to sell him. I don’t think he is better than Nelson.I think he just had a really good season in the French league. He’s still a question mark for me for a league like the Premier League. I’d sell him. I’d do the same with N Ketia. I’d It was better for him to go somewhere where he will compete for a place in the starting lineup. I don’t like his perpetually lazy style of play. In conclusion, everything I said, I wrote because I have to you have at least two equal elevens, not that your substitutes are so far away in quality from the main eleven. And let’s not forget that this year we will also play in the Champions League, so the rotation will be mandatory. And the crew always ready for war.
NONE
Don’t personally rate DR @
anywhere near $100M.
If Edu and MA view DR as the
missing piece to close the
considerable gap with City than
it’s going to be a frustrating
year in NL.
Rather have one of Onana/
Thuram/Kone (MG) and the
young RB from Galatasary for
the same price.
Honestly these are the things that gets me pissed off with Arsenal’s recruitments. Many managers and clubs are almost through with the signing of the players they want before the season winds up. Arsenal has this clumsy way in handling their transfers. They ought to know their prime targets, go for them setting their limits as well as their best quality alternatives. This footdragging that always leads to bidding war that they lose in most cases should be addressed. How much did Arsenal paid for Gabriel Jesus and at how much did Man city acquired Harland? Right now Arteta & Edu don’t really know how many players they are to sell, recall or retain. They will be contesting in four different competitions come next season and take it or leave it buying Declan Rice above £80m is outrageous, the club need to buy a strong killer CF, do they have a well established LB and back up? Tomiyasu spends half of the season treating injury where’s the effective back up for Ben White we saw how the Brighton’s wingers were slicing him in their last encounter at Emirates. Why should the club sell Balogun that has proven himself as Williams Saliba did and retain Nketia, it baffles me o. Arsenal squad under Arteta that has been unable to scale through the Europa semi finals is more expensive than Villarreal or Seville that has triumphed in it. They should know who and who they need then skillfully and strategically plan out their execution, move and kill it off. Most of these failures are not all about money rather their technicalities and methods of approach. It appears they are always not ready for the window season that before you know it only one week remains and you see them hastIy and frantically buying expensive average players.
JEMMAN, You see it, I see it, others see it but many in our fan base don’t see it. I don’t know where these misplaced loyalties to players who are simply not good enough come from. And I get your frustration with how slow our betters are at signing off on the deals. What’s the hold up and why will Arsenal most likely end up with what they call second picks in American and Australian sport.
“What’s the hold up…” The transfer window has been open for just 5 days as of today 19th June.
So are we now admitting Eddie isn’t good enough for Arsenal ?
Dan, for a team with aspirations of winning the league and a few more big mugs , we need an attack bully that can win a game on his own, someone you know will gives you more.
The young Englishman is a fine player that will certainly finds easier opportunities.
Yeah that’s what I said when we resigned him
Wouldn’t get on the bench of the any top 4 club
I doubt if Vieira would want to fail at a second PL club and he’s worth another season with us, but I heard that Nketiha had the interest of West Ham, so him plus whatever we consider fair money. A possible complication I read of is that West Ham insists on the money over two seasons, whereas we want to spread the cost over a longer period.
Hope the rumors and fees aren’t true.
Rice for 100 million and Havertz for 70 million? There goes the transfer kitty; overpay for a DM, and get Havertz who isn’t a striker, not a winger, not quite a CM, but an AM?
Why help bail Chelsea out of FFP within average Havertz?
The selling point is what exactly? They BELIEVE he COULD do better at Arsenal?
Why not spend 70 million on a player with proven production? Big gamble on HOPE, and not much else.
We dodged the Melo disaster, now facing another. Pass please and spend that money on a proven player, not hope.
It does make you wonder!
You mean Almighty Arsenal cannot cash out 100million pounds for player like Rice, they considering giving out to reducing the price. Its a shame.
Think the article is irrelevant as Rice is not a Arsenal player and its very unlikely he will be only a matter of time before city, chelski and prob man u start a bidding war which will rule us out completely!
IMO, we should dwell long on Rice, if 80m isn’t okay by westham, better we move on,there are awesome DMs in Portugal and south America,, we can always get an English CM/winger to support,
Reading the above, it doesn’t look as though we have much to offer WestHam. If it helps to halve their asking price for Rice then we have to give them Partey, Balogan or Nketian. No Premier League club would want to touch Pepe or Elneny while Xhaka would only be suitable for a club involved in a relegation dog fight. WestHam would be eyeing ESR and Tierney but I see them as two players would should hang on to because they would represent a serious loss.
I know others have said this, or I could be imagining it but, I don’t rate Declan Rice at all. He’s a good player for West Ham but nothing exceptional. I don’t think apart from his energy levels that he’s got any many other noticeable skills or abilities. He’s definitely not worth anything near 100M. If people weren’t in the frame of mind of ‘everything that glitters is gold’ they’d see he’s an pretty average player and theres many defensive midfielders that have many more strings to their bows than him. I hope we don’t get into a bidding war for him as it would be money badly spent. The same for Havertz. He hasn’t exactly pulled up trees for Chelsea. Signing either or both of those players would not make us any more potent than we already are. We need to be doing more on the pitch to makes us contenders as opposed to doing the same but with similar players. For me, it’s not about the money or penny pinching. It’s about having a team of players that are really going to make a difference. The above two aren’t going to do that !
KDB & Mo Salah didn’t pull up many trees at Chelsea either, and they’ve done quite well since moving on, not that I’m suggesting Havertz is world class or anything😏.
Both players are different from Harvert in their time at Chelsea.
Harvert has been playing every single day while Salah and KDB weren’t given a chance to prove themselves. BIG difference.
Why not go for Loftus Cheek cos he’s not pulling up trees too?
Comparing player that was given enough chances to two players who barely played is criminal.
I have said this before several times.
I am a great admirer of ESR, but I do not think his future is at Arsenal, despite Arteta’s stating the contrary.
I think ESR really needs a change of scenery, and a move to West Ham might be best for him.
So, he would be my recommendation to be part of the Rice deal!!