To be a big club you act like a big club. by Dan Smith
Some Gooners won’t have anything bad said about their club and will tell you that it’s only rumours that we are interested in Declan Rice.
Let’s just say though it’s true Mikel Arteta identified the midfielder as his number one target.
Let’s say it’s true that we have been negotiating with West Ham since January.
Let’s say it’s true that the players criteria is to be playing in the Champions League and remain living in London.
We know that David Sullivan went on national radio and said he has a gentlemen’s agreement with his captain, he won’t stand in his way if his asking price is met.
David Moyes has never been shy quoting that sum is at least at 100 million.
If all the above is true, a big club gets that transfer done.
If a Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern Munich had intel that their first choice signing wanted to join them, his employers were willing to sell and his family were settled in the city where you’re the only residents offering top tier European football, they would get their business done.
Let’s be honest if a club want to sell to you, and a player wants to play for you, that’s quite a hard deal to mess up on.
That’s what Arsenal may have done with the latest news in what is turning into a saga, being that Man City are about to make their own offer to West Ham, creating the bidding war that the Iron’s owner was hoping for.
If true, you won’t find the Champions haggling over every last pound. They will ask for West Ham to name their price and either pay if they agree or walk away if they disagree with the valuation.
Just like they haven’t dithered over buying Kovacic, just like you only heard about Chelsea’s links with Nkunku when the purchase was confirmed, just like Liverpool announced the Mac Allister capture once the window opened.
Edu equally could have had this deal confirmed by now but perhaps has arrogantly relied on believing we are Rice’s only choice?
Man City’s interest will be music to West Ham’s owners ears, with talk from the London Stadium that they were getting annoyed by the payment plan we were offering. Mr Sullivan might now get the bidding war he seeks.
That might force the Gunners to finally meet the Hammers valuation instead of haggling over every last penny.
The handshake Rice has with his employers is they will accept any offer that meets the sum they have quoted.
So, this isn’t a case of Man City outbidding us. If Mr Sullivan is a man of his word, he will accept any offer for his skipper once his asking price is met.
So, if it’s true that for months Rice has been sold on the project at the Emirates, he could still insist that he will only listen to offers from North London.
If Pep Guardiola is interested though this will force Edu to accept that he has to meet the asking price instead of trying to save money.
To be fair, if you believe the reports, West Ham have been telling our Sporting Director this for months.
If we fail to acquire the 24 year old, I will then question our entire policy.
I love Edu the player and his place in our history is always secure, but it’s his job to identify targets and negotiate.
He’s not doing us a favour, it’s his job, one that he gets paid a lot to do.
I bet he’s not conscious of saving the Kroenke Family money when he agrees his own contract.
Maybe once or twice the Brazilian can make mistakes and miss out on those at the top of our shortlist.
Yet Rice isn’t the first talent where negotiations have been leaked out to the public, gone on for weeks and fallen through due to those in power being indecisive.
In fact, this has been a common occurrence since Stan Kroenke first had major control on our board.
Remember Higuain?
How about the famous 40 million and a pound for Suarez?
It would be great if our owners flew over and insisted this deal gets over the line.
Their own manager has insisted Arsenal don’t have the squad to compete on all fronts and have to improve all aspects of the club (including recruitment) to compete with Man City.
Isn’t that the level we should be aspiring too?
When we were last in UEFA’s top tier competition, we didn’t have the ambition to compete. We were happy to finish in the top 4, bank the Champions League revenue, and use Mr Wenger as a shield to hide behind.
The next couple of months it’s -now or never- for Josh Kroenke to prove he has more aspirations than his father.
That he’s not afraid to take that next step.
He can’t hide behind stadium debt like his dad.
Ticket prices have increased, shirt prices have risen, subscriptions are unaffordable, etc …our fanbase have every right after two decades without a tittle to demand the best.
That’s all I ever ask of my club, to be the best version of themselves they can be.
Some readers won’t have anything bad about said about the club and will defend the regime no matter what.
They will act like accountants and pretend they care about money being saved.
How can they preach value when we are about to give Chelsea 65 million for Havertz. That might be hard to do?
If an attacker who’s failed to score double digit of goals in the League since moving to England is worth 65 million, then West Ham have a right to value Rice at the amount they do.
If Rice ends up at the Etihad, I can envisage some supporters acting like the person who’s been rejected by their crush.
They will make out they didn’t want Rice anyway and it’s a blessing that we didn’t pay over the odds.
Rice though improves our midfield, is at an age where he will only get better, has leadership qualities, etc.
The fact is Arteta has identified this player as his first choice.
A failure to back our manager means after 6 years we have gone full cycle.
6 years ago, we didn’t act like a big club, and we have regressed.
If we have returned to the Champions League still unwilling or unable to buy the best players, then we have gone backwards, just to return to the same position we were in under Mr Wenger.
Things change but stay the same?
A big club, having negotiated since January, having been told the player wants to join you, that the club are willing to sell and that he’s your managers first choice ……a big club gets that deal done.
There’s no point pretending that’s not the case.
Dan
Coz Edu first of his name likes to dillydally and allow other teams into the conversation
The reason is that there’s seems to be zero viability analysis in our transfer dealings. Think about Vlahovic, chased and chased and chased and the guy openly said he doesn’t want to come to us.
Price cap:
– what’s will be the first offer and what price demand will we walk away at
Wage cap:
– what’s will be the first offer and what wage demand will we walk away at
Personal Terms:
– does this player actually want to play for us
Alternatives:
– which alternative players do we go for (do the same process as above)
We seem to just shoot from the hip and hope for the best. Like with Havertz, the general consensus it that he’s been brought in as a replacement for Xhaka. If that’s the case why on earth didn’t we go for McAllister instead? He’s cheaper and better at that position. I’m not saying Havertz is bad but there seems to be very little logic involved in our transfers.
Maybe because Man Sheikhy have bottomless black-gold wells as their source of income, whereas Arsenal just got some Walmarts who got looted weekly and were forced to shut down in some cities?
Aside from that, the amount of money West Ham want could be enough to buy two homegrown midfielders. I would be disappointed if we pay £100m for Rice and lose Lavia because of that
We still have other priorities as well, such as Timber and Havertz. I also think we could sign Dewsbury-Hall, Phillips, Loftus-Cheek or Gallagher instead of Rice
Gai, I think their is something Arteta saw in DRice and if that’s the case they should pay for him and stop delaying unnecessarily. I mean we started hearing the rumor of Arteta wanting DRice immediately after season ends. I Amber to understand why Havertz is needed more Than DRice. On Wedsday ESR scores a good goal for England under 21 world cup.
Sylva, I don’t think Rice is worth £100m. I was also surprised by Havertz’s deal, but Arteta might need a new tall left-footed AM because of Xhaka’s departure
Gai,
Haver’tz can’t defend like Xhaka that’s my worry. And if Pathey is sold there is need for a DRice or RLavia. Generally the market is highly inflated even though I can’t really see any player worth the price the market put on them at the moment. Jude Belingham, Mason Mount, Timber, Canceido Paulinha non is worth their prices .
Because arsenal have no money
Did you see ticket and shirt prices
Cl revenue
They can afford it trust me
Don’t mention shirt sales Dan, that’s the ultimate sin, even though the revenue it brings in to the club is enormous and shows who is the most popular player at the end of each season.
Season ticket prices? That’s an individual’s choice and there are plenty of fans ready to buy, so that’s a red herring.
CL revenue? Who needs it, as that was the cry when we had it for years on end.
The price this player is being valued at is way too much. If MA and his recruitment team is smart they can get 2 class midfielders and maybe part payment of a solid defender at this price. I like Rice but the price is definitely over hyped
And yet, as good as City are, Rice will improve them. Paying big bucks is the only way you ever get the players you need. The fact is, City can afford it. We can’t.
If that is the case, we will never improve enough unless we win the EPL and CL. Which is difficult if City buy the players we need. It’s an ever decreasing circle..
Rice improve Man City? How?
He won’t do more than what Rodri or Gundogan did, so what is he improving?
and saying Man city will buy all the players we need? How?
All our front 4 except Jesus played better than Man city front 4 and guess how much they cost? 41M (cos i already exempt Jesus). which shows there are far better player than Rice out there with lower price.
João Palhinha was bought for 20 M and took the EPL by storm, can you confidently say Rice is 20M better than him?
We might bid 100 mil and City could counter that with more money. People need to understand we have our limitations financially and we might not be able to compete financially with City. It’s not like there’s a lack of effort from Arsenal to get the deal over the line, it’s just that Edu and co need to make sure we getting a better deal
@Oyama
Like Edu and co did with Havertz? A reported £65M fee and £210k-a-week in wages? Edu is a clown 🤡
I do believe we could’ve gotten a discount on Havertz or paid less but it’s funny how quick opinions change in football, Havertz can have a season of his life and people start to think we got him cheap at 65mil.
On Rice, he’s always going to devide opinions, some will not appreciate we pay over 100mil for him.
Partey at the romoured 19mil a crime, also.
Tough job for Edu and his negotiations team but let’s wait and judge on the field of play.
Harvertz cheap at 65M? i hope it happens.
Even Odegaard don’t worth 50M yet.
And White is yet to worth 35M.
but atleast Odegaard and Ramsdale already worth and surpass his price tag
Did you read the article ?
He clearly says that it’s not a case of being outbid as west ham have stated that they will sell to any club matching their valuation.
In other words they want £100million so that’s the figure we need to bid. once done they will accept and allow us to speak to the player as that’s the promise they made to him
OG, there’s contrasting reports about the quoted price. Some sources say 120mil, which I doubt city will pay, so it goes down to bidding you cannot discard the bidding part. Their coach was even quoted saying a club that wants Rice has to pay over 100mil. All am saying every transfer is negotiable, why should it be otherwise on Rice’s case ?
You think Man City will just pay whatever is quoted? No they will negotiate and try outbid us not pay just the romoured 120mil outright.
That’s absolute rubbish is Aesenal couldn’t get this deal done. City shouldn’t even be involve in this transfer before we pay for Rice. We’re big club like City too. C’mon Arsenal. This isn’t Wenger Era. Don’t use Wenger Era to compare Arteta era. Pls let’s be realistic.
I personally think Rice is way overpriced anyway but if the club saw something that would improve then they should have just payed the fee ,West Ham told us the price and said they would reject the second offer before it even went in so what was the point when they gave their have their asking price weeks ago .
Apparently selling partey for 17million to juve if reports are true which is crime in itself .
Exactly Dan Kit!
I call it dithering but that word seems to upset some of the JA folk. We have know what the requirement was but have simply tried to avoid the obvious. We can’t afford him!
We should have been concentrating on other alternatives. West Ham knew we wanted him and have used Arsenal to get a bidding war going.
Exactly, we have not learned since the Mudryk saga – people are saying we avoided a curve ball, but let’s not forget, Havertz hasn’t exactly outperformed Mudryk either, at Chelski. Cannot believe the ridiculous bids we put in, it was clear WH were never going to accept that, they can just hold onto the player for another 2 years after all. If we weren’t ready to step up to the plate let’s stop wasting time and money. I think having Rice as DM is pivotal, no pun intended, and if we need to overpay a bit for this position which we haven’t been strong enough in since the Viera days, then that’s what we have to do or quibble over 10 million, spend that on Havertz, and never have the strength to win any major competition. Have no doubt, this is KSE nonsense.
Thank you so much. The board isn’t supprting the manager which shouldn’t be so.
With Regards to Havertz l would like to remind you of 2 facts
Number one look at his stats before he joined the chavs when he played as an attacking midfielder not as a CF which he was forced to play last season.
Number 2 Chelsea have a habit of playing players either out of position or in a set up that doesn’t suit.
KDB, Sarah and Lukaku twice spring to mind.
So maybe, just maybe, Arteta has a plan that will add Havertz to that list.
Why do people like comparing Salah and KDB to Harvertz situation as if its the same situation?
Salah was 22 years then with just 13 appearances and have better players in front of him then, KDB was 21 with 3 appearances and with better players in front of him, even Lukaku first stint, he was only 19 years when he left for Westbrom and 20 when he went to Everton and with better players ahead of him.
The situations are diff, please stop comparing, Havertz might turn good but he was used regularly in Chelsea team and competing with nobody. You guys are saying he was used in a role he’s not familiar with, yet we’re using Zinc in a role he can’t defend in.
I even saw a formation of him playing diff areas for us cos of his versality but you’re criticizing Chelsea for doing the same.
He turn out good or not, the fact remains, he is no good a player to pay 40M on.
Willlian, Oscar and Hazard has better output than him and yet they are nothing outside Chelsea.
Give me examples of players that has much chances to play at Chelsea and was sold and went ahead to pull up trees
And don’t mention Lukaku cos he never got any chance to perform at Chelsea before been sold to Everton (He only has 10 appearances) and when he came back and left, he’s not pulling up trees either.
Is that what you meant about comparing the Wenger era to the Arteta era?
The owner supporting one but not the other?
That was for Johnson.
It’s a habit. Years of practice in shooting ourselves in the foot. In the beginning there was Juan Mata and Chelsea did the Donald on us. Lucky we got Santi. Remember Luis Suarez….top player….£40,000,001. Mr Bean type bid. For football’s sake thank god it failed. Arsenal have shot themselves in the foot many laughable times. BUT maybe this will encourage us to buy both Sergej Milinković-Savić and Nicolo Barella for the price of a bowl of Rice and end up with the best midfield in the EPL. Move quickly before we get gazumped again.
This has been Arsenal’s way for years, we have always been tight arses, it was happening way before Wenger, trust me, we have always been notorious when it came to spending money. Don’t think Rice is worth 100 million, we need better skilled midfielders as well
Yes, just buy Barella and SMS because they’re available and hope they work well together. Don’t put any thought into it, just buy. Brilliant strategy.
Our owner is simply I seriously
The thing is- if they lose Rice to someone else and the price is going to be 100 million or plus that, then the alternatives will likely to be about same amount because others are going to use that price as a benchmark. So in the end of the day you are not saving anything. Better pay the 100 million fast get the deal done. This is crazy, greedy market. I do not understand why Arsenal are selling their talents to others for reasonable price. Balogun is english born and bred so he should be at least 60 million. Imagine if he was Brighton player and we would try to buy him.
Neil which Clubs are actually interested in Balogun?I am not aware of any which leads me to ask why?Could it be that he is not considered good enough whereas the likes of Caicedo and Mitoma of Brighton are.
If Balogun was PL proven and scoring those goals we’d get 60 mil
Thank you so much for this responsible fact about our club. The board is definitely not in the position of buying quality players for our manager. Arteta knows what he wants and he stands on that. Just like his old boss(Guardiola)he always focus on his target. But the board isn’t acting the way the manager wants. Let the board do as the manager say. All we want is trophy over trophy. UpGunners.💪#COYG.
The larger question is was our priority Kai rather than Rice. Any right thinking club will not haggle on the primary target but do so for others. If Rice was our primary target i would go and give an extra 5 M and get him fast and then try to haggle with my other targets. We cannot end up with Kai and failing to get Rice. If that happens its worst failure than 40+1 that wenger did for Suarez
I can’t understand why we haven’t finish the Declan Rice deal,if this deal fails to go through I want be happy as diehard Arsenal fan that I am, we’re in champion league now, come to think of it premier league,FA Cup carabao cup and no squad dept, come on now,Mr Edu what sort of stinginess is this, thank you I rest my case for now. I will remain a gunners for life
WestHam is also allegedly interested with Nketia, there is a carrot to dangle for the Rice Deal?
They’ll never pay his wages so won’t happen
If they got him cheap they would save on the purchase fee to pay his wages, possibly?
Not sure Eddie gets In their starting 11 so he wouldn’t be a must have ?
Beginning to think there a whole load of Spuds on here posing as Gooners.
Look at the constant reminding of the Suarez offer despite the facts…let’s put in caps to help them..
FACTS that the Liverpool owner admitted there was a clause that stated that Suarez could talk to any CL club that offered in excess of £40million FACT!!
£40million and £1 is in excess of £40million FACT!!
So Arsenal’s offer, and not Wengers offer as some still think, was enough to activate that clause FACT!!
Also that offer was simply to activate the clause allowing us to speak to the player. Had other clubs offered the necessary amount they too could have spoken to him and then it would have resulted in a bidding war
So that figure was a starting point set by Liverpool not Arsenal
If they aren’t Spuds and in fact real fans maybe they could reply and tell me who in their right minds pays more to buy something than is being quoted
It was still stupid and embarrassing
FACT!!
No, it was very amusing and I like many others saw the funny side of it, can I sat FACT
The Liverpool owner (was it John Henry?) much later admitted that Arsenal had followed the correct protocol and that he had cheated us with his “what are they smoking”.
Wenger later admitted that one of the benefits of Suarez was the extra goals accumulated through his diving.
I’m glad that we do our business the way that we do and will not budge and pay more than our valuations no matter what.
Suarez also had a great set of deadly gnashers… FACT!
Fact .. if Arsenal had given Liverpool a decent offer they would have accepted
Havertz… wouldn’t have been my choice – however neither was Odegaard ! Rice will sign for the club he wants to sign for … if we bid £100M and City bid £110M then he goes to City and we look elsewhere … maybe Edu is using the Rice saga as a smokescreen to sign other players … would sooner have Calceido and Lavia for £130M and Havertz and Timber with a final last day surprise using the money from our sales … paper doesn’t refuse ink … and we know most journo’s and “experts” are anti Arsenal so don’t believe everything you read.
Your comment is to the point, the best one among many idiotic ones in here and I agree with you wholehaertedly.
We can get Sergej Milinkovi-Savic (who is better than Declan Rice…) for 40£ mils and Romea Lavia for 40-50£ mils. Much better deal than pay more than 100£ mils for Rice.
Yet again we aren’t prepared to put our money where our mouth is. Rice has been our main target for months but we look like missing out because we will not pay what his club want. Overpriced but the best available and anyone else would be a step backwards.
If we let both Xhaka and Partey leave without adequate replacements we become also rans again. Chelsea look like signing Caceido so who else is left ?
who else is left ?
João Palhinha
SMS
Danilo
Zubi
Barge
So many who can improve us.
Not like Rice is better than Partey.
Well he is
He is not better then Partey and more likely anyone who pays 120 mil for the him will be
seriously lacking any sense.
In fact I would have offered that we signed Caicedo for 80 because he is younger and better
than DR in many aspects.
I wish they used DR as a decoy and went for Moises but selling Partey at under 30 mil given where the market is will be insane. Arteta seemed to have a small issue with Partey due to his inh=juries but when he is health he is a top midfielder and proven in the league. Aside from that with CL football will need a much larger rotation and replacing 1 for 1 will not provide enough cover.
I am 65 and this has been the same old Arsenal every transfer window
If i want a bag of sugar and go to pay i can’t offer themlow than what the price i leave empty handed EDU DO YOU JOB if you can’t get out
The diff is, you’re buying a bag of sugar which is a fixed price.
There are so many goods in the market that you can price. Rice is one of them.
A businessman don’t just go to the market to buy at the actual price. That is why the word Negotiation is in the dic
Not during lock down at my corner shop, no fixed price there I can tell you along with the Pasta and bog paper
Supposedly our second bid was £65m over six windows, meaning 36 months. The Havertz deal is supposedly £50m over the same period (exc add one). The difference between paying that in one lump sum and over a longer period makes a huge difference in terms of how much of the budget remains for this window so even if the absolute value is frightening, the structure of the deal is far more important. Remember that we are still squad building, still have a handful of slots to fill and simply can’t afford to do that if the structure isn’t right, even if the player in question is a Messi regen.
Not worth £100 M tbh, that’s a grossly inflated price and yes Mr. Sullivan & Co. are well within their right to demand that price but we are NOT obligated to pay it even though we can somehow find that money. (I’m not sure we can meet their asking payment demands)
I think that’s why the deal has protracted this long and more likely why Citeh will have him because, yes, they do have the deep pockets and probably more cash at hand to make it rain this moment. We still have a long list of players to sell and it is not like Edu knows how to sell his assets let alone cut them loose. That being said, I’d worry if Partey is to leave also but if Lavia comes in…we can steal one from under City’s noses seeing the buy-back clause with his parent club doesn’t get activated until 2024 & Chelsea look certain to land Caicedo. Best bet…Lavia comes in and another focal player.
it is not that players bought expensively are the high preforming players. look at how much we paid for martin ordegard and martinelle. So if we can buy relatively cheap players who can perform to the highest level its better.
70 million plus Neketiah and chuck in holding as well!
You say “chuck in Holding” like he’s a car mat. Seriously?
That’s a insult to a car mat!🤣
So you don’t thats an insult to your fellow human being. You need to know there is life outside football
👍👍👍
To answer the headline question. Because if we went in with £100 million offer in first bid, WH would want £120 million. Anyone who knows anything about purchasing negotiations (and I do) knows you start low and meet somewhere in the middle. Buying and selling is a partnership, it’s not like going into a shop and having to pay the price on the ticket for a bag of sugar or a bottle of milk. With no specific value, you have to bargain to get the best deal for you.
This was answering the article headline, not Mark.
Simon Jordan suggested precisely this on Talk Sport the other morning about dealing with David Sullivan. Just when you think you know the answers, he changes the questions. As slippery as an eel and quite willing to move the goalposts whenever it suits him, so to speak.
I understand we have a budget and we don’t have an endless supply of money but if we want an excellent player we need to pay the extra 10-20 million pounds. I think we should do that only for special players. It won’t bankrupt us
What everybody seems to be ignoring is Rice still has two years on his contract, West Ham don’t need to sell. So if no one meets their valuation they will probably simply keep Rice another season. They will be able to say to the player that they were willing to sell but buying clubs only wanted him on the cheap. Given what Arsenal paid and how quickly they paid it for Havertz I suspect their attitude might make Rice question how much he’s really wanted.
Arsenal’s negotiating tactics would make more sense if Rice was in the last year of his contract and West Ham were under pressure to sell.
I am also of the opinion that Rice is not worth the hype. A 100mil is enough to get us both Romeo and Everton’s Onana. Even if Edu decides to let Granit go and this Belgium Kid at Crystal palace, and retain Party for atleast a season, then we are good to go
DAN, there are “big clubs” and there are also far smaller ones, but who are filthy rich, such as City.
YOUR DESCRIPTION OF US AS A BIG CLUB, omits to mention that we are not , unlike City, a club where money is no object.
THAT is my objection to your piece , despite its many other fine points. My point is the RELEVANT ONE THOUGH and trumps all other arguments
Agree with this article. It doesn’t matter that some of the fans think Rice isn’t worth 100 mill. If Arsenal think that Rice is the player they need to elevate us to challenge for the Premier League and Champions Cup consistently with all the extra money that brings in then an extra 10 or 20 mill is worth it surely. We knew what West Ham were asking and they were adamant they would not budge so we either pay it or walk away not keep putting in lower bids and prolonging the process.
I’m sure we all think that the money we have to pay for these players is ludicrous but it is what it is and as Dan says do we want to act like a big club then this is what we have to do.
Just a comment about the Suarez bid that a lot of people are talking about here. The bid of 40 mill + £1 was to enable us to start talking to the player and not a bid for the player. The Liverpool chairman after slagging us off later said we had done everything properly.
Hope we walk away from the Rice debacle and the attempted mugging by West Ham.
Paulhina from Fulham and Lavia is better value and wiser spending of funds. Caicedo was 1st target, we could get him for 80 million and another CM for the cost of Rice.
Can’t believe some are so eager to waste half our rumored 200 million on one player. There are quality choices out there, multiple deals can be done for the 100 million.
Not fussed at all, 100 million you expect a world beater, and Rice isn’t near Rodri, and hardly worth the price.
Thank you.
Rodri is not even worth 100M and yet people want Rice who is not even in Rodri league for 100M?
Throw that 100M to Man City for Rodri and see if they won’t sell.
i know Man City can sell any players and none of their players is sold for 100M
Exactly my point. Rodri is levels above Rice if we are honest. How much is he worth? Would City charge that much? Would 90 million land Rodri but not Rice?
People get crazy over Rice and overhype him because he’s English. How much would he cost if he was French, German, Italian, Portuguese? Far far less for sure, English Tax is real and a big part of that 100 million. Sorry but no way is he 100 million good.
I’d take Rodri everyday over Rice, be happy with Caicedo for 80 million, and would happily take Paulhina from Fulham as well.
Hope we walk away and get 2 quality midfielders for his price. Imagine the players we could get instead of the 165 million for Havertz and Rice.
Okay is Rice better then Phillips who went for 45 ?
Better then Caicedo who Brighton want same amount for
What about fulham quoting 90 for their dm ?
If Arteta says he’s is number one target you either trust your manager and back him or we accept nothing has changed under the Koronke’s
Nothing changed except backing Arteta to the tune of 500 million! Can’t scold Kroenke when he’s made funds available, imaging if they backed Wenger like this!
We have multiple DM’s as choices, no need to get mugged by putting on blinders for Rice and paying 100 million.
Previous comment (sorry can’t remember the person) correctly stated they rebuilt a very strong squad on their process philosophy; talented young players 30-40 million in fees to play as a team.
Stick with what works, we can get 2-3 quality players for the cost of Rice.
Many have trusted this process to get us here, so keep trusting this youth and value philosophy now.
But mate it’s what Arteta wants
He openly said we to improve all areas of the club to win things including recruitment
If your manager is saying this player makes us better and he ends up at the team who won the treble …..thats not good
Wrong. Rice’s stats are actually on a par with Rodri, which is why Arteta rates him so highly. In fact, Rice smokes Rodri for winning possession in midfield and his carrying and retention are also superior. If people actually bothered to research his numbers compared to the best midfielders in the Prem, they’d see how good he actually is. Data beats opinion, every time.
The ‘Rice’ transfer has become boring. I honestly don’t mind if we pay 100K to sign him, I think he will be worth it. IMO it’s not only his talent, and his potential to get better, it’s also what he will bring with his personality. He has a ‘Roy of the Rovers’ and ‘Captain Fantastic’ persona that will pay dividends to the identity and energy of the team and club. Get it done.
We should be quicker making those first two bids and then see if we want to go as high as 100m. We’ve been after him before the window opened so I’d expect we know the price a bit sooner. And it won’t be half of our budget because it’ll be spread out over a number of seasons. The structure of the deal is said to be our biggest problem and we haven’t even bid on his asked valuation yet
It’s not just the fee that is the problem, it’s also the instalments. WHU want the fee paid over 2 instalments, which with our other payments for players that we have bought and payments for players we want to buy, is causing a problem.
People go on about shirt sales. Well the club doesn’t get all the money, Adidas get the most, as that’s why the pay so much for the sponsorship. The names and numbers on the back of the shirts is where the club makes money.
People can say that this or that player isn’t worth the money that a selling club wants, but it’s not down to them, it’s down to the buying club.
At ninety five million pounds, Arsenal have tried. West Ham should not use this kind of troubles to send off their captain who have served them so well to the level of winning Conference Cup for them. If you are asking for 100million pounds and at the third bid you have been offered 95million pounds. I think this is reasonable enough to be accepted. Any further delay is not good enough.
Nevertheless, Arsenal should pay and let start on other deals. Edu will bear the whole blame for any failure in Rice deal. Because this is what he did that made us to loose out on Mudryk deal. The Kronkes wanted to pay and he discouraged them. It’s a shame to loose out at this stage. We need to do many more business in this window. We want him to do away with all his Vieras and replace them with them with quality strong players and not the ones that opponent strong players will be pushing aside like Manchester City players where doing to us last season. We also need a strong and confirmed goals scorer who can score goals from little opportunities.
Some good analysis and some atriocious drivel on this thread, so a nice balance of opinion. Let’s look at the facts.
Rice is a very good player and his numbers – for a holding mid – are excellent. He has a powerful engine and reads the game exceptionally well, with his trump card being winning possession and carrying the ball forward. This is how the game is evolving: previously, top central defenders and holding midfielders were required to have a solid ‘range of passing’, that could be utilised to bypass midfield areas, whilst holding their rearguard positon. Look at how Pep has transformed John Stones. He now resembles a box-to-box defender, stepping out into midfield and carrying the ball all the way to the 18 yard box, instead of dropping back and letting the forward line link play. Souness has been whining this week that Rice doesn’t score enough goals, but he could with Arsenal, because the wide players will be happy to drop inside and feed him if he wants to push on, as you saw in the Conference League. Regardless, we already have a 15-goals a season midfielder in Odegaard, so I’m not sure it’s a priority. This is the beauty of the Arsenal system – flexibility and fluidity. Rice will make us more reliable in the press outside our final third and more dynamic in transition going forward.
The comments on Havertz are ludicrous – he’s absoutely an Arsenal-style player and will thrive in our system because he’s so versatile. Arteta is building a Pep-style squad full of players who can modulate between multiple positions and Havertz fits that mould. He failed at Chelsea because they don’t have an identity – people have clearly forgotten that De Bruyne and Salah both played for the Spivs and did nothing. They just needed the right club, with the right coach, and the right vision to excel. Havertz is no different.
It’s not about anything you mentioned above. It’s about financial responsibility highly sorted by Arsene Wenger. Without that, we will not be in the healthy situation as we currently are. The inevitable of historical nature of human is to forget the basic platform of survival once comfort is gained. Just like we as football fans feels overly sense of proprietary of our football club, the club owners feels obligated not to waste money, mostly generated by football fans. But then again, such senseless emotions are not only killing football clubs, but also sense of morality and literally destroying countries. Countries with destructive ideologies around Arab regions and Marxist countries like China are fooling everyone who seemed to think their hidden sense of greed is shielded by their false sense of intelligence or worse, their self morality. I’m gonna say, shame on all of you. I’m gonna say, get lost all of you.
The big “if” in this article is that West Ham’s Mr Sullivan is a “man of his word” and would automatically accept the £100 million if offered. If Arsenal offered that sum, there is no guarantee that Sullivan would not use that to set the floor price for Declan Rice. West Ham are probably fueling the rumours about Manchester City’s interest, to induce a bidding war to gain more money.
The big question is what is Arsenal’s valuation of Declan Rice and at what point will Arsenal shift their attention elsewhere? Arsenal cannot afford, given the relative resources compared to Manchester City, to pay over the odds.
I get people saying we should not overpay for Rice but are we not wildly overpaying for Havertz. At least Rice has performed to a good standard for Westham since he broke into their first team five years ago which is in stark contrast to Havertz who has been a massive flop over the last three years.
The majority of this discussion tends to ignore the fact that under no circumstances were west ham ever going to sell before all parties had ruled themselves out.
That should be obvious, this myth we could of tied the deal up earlier is just that. West Ham have been clear from day 1 that they will hold out for a bidding war in the hopes getting 120+
Even if we offered 150 mil let’s say, why shouldn’t West Ham wait and see if another team actually wants to beat that? Haggle over structure of payments in the meantime. The answer is obvious, they should within reason.
If he wants City over us not a lot we can do. Either way I suspect we’ll find out where he’s going next week.
It’s highly unlikely he’s going anywhere but the Emirates. My feeling is the club are going to position him as the matinee idol of the team: a clean-living, midfield general and family man earmarked for not just the Arsenal captaincy, but England further down the line. Rice ticks all the boxes for commercial markets: he’s tall, easy on the eye, can project well in interviews, and his family-orientated backstory is a dream for sponsors. That he’s also now a West Ham legend draws the obvious parallels to Bobby Moore. This sh*t literally writes itself.
There’s a lot riding on this, not just for Arsenal but for the Premier League as well. Consider this, if City were to acquire Rice, a rotating midfield of him, Rodri, De Bruyne, Stones and Kovacic would be almost unstoppable. I’m not convinced City could bend FFP that hard they could afford another £100m player so soon after Grealish, but there’s no doubt if Arsenal dropped out now they’d play their hand in some fashion. The consequences for everyone else having designs on winning the league, make grim reading. Competition is essential to prevent the PL turning into a monopoly, so for everyone’s sake Arsenal need to get this deal over the line.