Declan Rice remains Arsenal’s priority transfer target for the summer window, with David Ornstein reporting this week that the Gunners are “pushing hard” to sign him from West Ham United.
According to the latest Mail+ Transfer Confidential newsletter from Simon Jones, Arsenal are soon set to submit a structured £90m offer for the midfielder, but nothing is done yet.
West Ham are hoping for even more than that, and they believe Manchester United will meet their demands.
Arsenal have put in the work to ensure they’re leading the race ahead of the summer, and they have the advantage of allowing Rice to remain in London.
Yet if it all falls apart, Simon Jones reports that Arsenal have other options on their shortlist.
Real Sociedad’s Martin Zubimendi, Wolves’ Ruben Neves, and Brighton’s Moises Caicedo are all reportedly in the running for a move if Rice goes elsewhere.
Arsenal reportedly held talks with Zubimendi in January, but he didn’t want to leave Sociedad mid-season.
Wolves want £45m for Neves, who is keen to play Champions League football, though they’d rather sell abroad.
As for Caicedo, we’re all well aware of the moves Arsenal made to sign the midfielder in the January transfer window, and Roberto De Zerbi has admitted Brighton could lose him this summer.
Mikel Arteta will hope to land his first-choice target this time, of course.
Arsenal have done a very good job of pivoting to alternative signings in recent windows, but it can surely only help the team to get deals done for Arteta’s number-one favoured options instead.
The finances involved and the widespread interest in Rice make a deal hard to predict, so it’s certainly no bad thing to have backups.
