Certainly wouldn’t say no to Rice. The only issue in terms of money is whether it would prevent us from strengthening elsewhere as well but aside from that, and as others have said, he’s an ideal replacement/cover option for Partey.
If we are going to be in the CL next season then we won’t be able to get away with playing Partey 2x a week/playing someone like El Nenny every other game. Right now the 6 role is one of the areas we need more quality reinforcement and it’s probably one of the most difficult to fill adequately.
It seems like we are ok to spend about 150m a season on incoming players so even a fee of 70-80m would still leave us room to add more in other areas.
I don’t think that will be necessary. West Ham are going to sell him in the summer regardless since he has one year left.
Still worried about Chelsea just bidding like crazy here again. Might not matter if we have CL and they don’t if Chelsea slap down 100mill or more again.
If Rice goes in the next window then Man City will be after him.
They’re going to spend big because they’re starting to look a bit stale and Guardiola will want at least a couple of big name signings to replace some of their older players.
There’s no way we can get a player if either Chelsea or Man City are after them as well as we’ve just found out.
I’m all for this signing, but 100m… Mmm maybe. I’m glad if we have quality on the bench, can rotate with equally good players and I’m against having a ‘starting eleven’. Two-three injuries and you have to start a player like Sanogo.
This transfer has ‘Arsenal doing the legwork for Chelsea’ written all over it.
I guess Edu is banking on us being the title winners being a major deciding factor for Rice.
I’m just glad to hear that we were planning on signing Mudryk for 70m and also going after Rice. Shows that the money is there and that the plan is to complete the squad with a couple big signings not rando depth pieces.
Complicates our current business but that’s the approach I want the club to be planning in general.
Completely agree and has been my position all along. Top of my wishlist last summer and would be a fantastic addition to our squad, nowithstanding the English tax!
Rice is not better than Partey. But in terms of enforcers out you can’t get much better out there. Absolutely no chance we can beat the competition to him though given what the likes of Chelsea and United are willing to shell out for one of the most sought after players in the league.
Ok so after my post last night I realised that whenever I’ve watched him play for England I’ve always paid more attention to Bellingham and decided to review my stance on him by watching some YouTube comps of him.
Safe to say, at least from a YT perspective, that he looks like a baller and would be a great addition to our midfield. I’d be happy to sign him and I think £70-£80m is a fair deal given his quality and contract situation. Or at least “fair” in this day and age for an English player. Madness to think we got Partey for £50m.
