Manchester City are officially out of the race to sign Declan Rice this summer after various sources confirmed they would not be matching the latest bid by Arsenal.
Arsenal and Man City have been battling it out to sign Rice from West Ham this summer. With only one year remaining on his contract at the London Stadium, he appears ready to leave on a high note as a Europa Conference League winning captain.
West Ham value their academy graduate around the £100m mark. Therefore, Man City failed with their attempt to sign him for £80m plus £10m in add-ons.
It came after Arsenal had also been unsuccessful with a £90m package, theirs comprising of an initial £75m payment and £15m in extras.
But Arsenal have come back strongly in the race for Rice by finally smashing the nine-figure barrier. Indeed, they have put a £105m package on the table, starting from a £100m base fee.
West Ham are yet to accept it, since they may have some concerns about the structure of the deal. Per the report, Arsenal want to pay over five years, whereas West Ham want the guaranteed portion of the money in their bank by the start of 2025, over just two instalments.
However, the Hammers’ expectation that Man City would respond with their own new bid for Rice has not been fulfilled.
Instead, the Daily Mail has broken the news that Man City have withdrawn from the Rice race because they would not be willing to go above what Arsenal have already submitted.
Man City refuse to outbid Arsenal for Declan Rice
Other sources such as ESPN and the Manchester Evening News have quickly added their weight to the claims that the treble winners will not exceed £105m for Rice.
And since Arsenal have already made an offer of that size, Man City have decided against following through with their pursuit of the England international.
Recently, ex-England women’s international Eni Aluko theorised on talkSPORT that Man City weren’t actually interested in Rice, but their manager Pep Guardiola was willingly being used as a negotiating tactic by Arsenal counterpart Mikel Arteta to encourage Edu and his superiors to up their own bid.
Now, the Mail has confirmed that Arsenal are set for a frantic new round of talks with West Ham on Wednesday about their remaining offer.
If it eventually goes through at the £105m mark, Rice would become the most expensive English player of all time.
The report also suggests Man Utd are still in the background for him, but their own ability to spend big on players is currently in limbo. Thus, Arsenal are firmly in pole position as things stand.
Furthermore, the latest update claims Rice will now ask West Ham to accept Arsenal’s £105m bid.
Still only 24 years old, Rice has played 245 times across his West Ham career, scoring 15 goals. He has been their player of the year in three of the past four seasons.
Joining Arsenal would enable him to fulfil his dream of stepping up to Champions League level. So too would a move to Man City, but that is now clearly off the cards.
