Declan Rice deal hold-up explained

Any thoughts that Arsenal could pull out of the Declan Rice deal at the last minute look to have been killed off by  a report from Sky Sports.

The move is still to be completed despite an agreement on both sides about the structure of payments which held it up for a while

Now new reports that Rice won’t be attending his medical until Friday have created conspiracy theories that Arsenal may be ready to pull out of the agreement.

West Ham struck a club-record £105million deal, worth £100m up front plus £5m in add-ons, to sell star defensive midfielder Rice to the Gunners.

But although the move is set to happen imminently  the north Londoners  have not yet formally announced or officially completed it despite manager Mikel Arteta wanting him to travel on their pre-season tour of the USA.

The reason however is pretty simple with Sky Sports insisting the Hammers  are ready to rubber-stamp the move on their end but add we are waiting on Arsenal’s lawyers to approve the final wording of the deal – and that Rice’s transfer will be completed once that is done.

Arsenal fly to America on Sunday, where their pre-season preparations will continue as they face MLS All-Stars in Washington, Manchester United in New Jersey and Barcelona in Los Angeles.