Declan Rice (done and dusted)

West Ham won’t sell for £60m…slap £80m down as an opening bid to show we’re serious. We need to go big or go home this summer. If we get top 4 this season we need to stay there, so we need to invest to consolidate our position.

80m for Declan Rice :weary:

Prefer Jude Bellginham.

However I’d pay big money to bring either one of those two in. Declan Rice feels exactly the type of character that would fit arteta and our squad.

Realistically your gonna see 100m quoted from West ham, we’re talking about the nailed on future england captain. Grealish was 100m, Maddison was being quoted north of 60m and he cant even make the england squad.

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Not that I’m in favour of going down the cheaper foreign variant route from the lesser leagues, I read this morning that we expect to target Fabian Ruiz for a cool £16m. Very tidy player, would certainly bring something to our midfield. That type of money wouldn’t even touch our war chest.

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Do you see Ruiz as a Rice variant though? Ruiz strikes me as more of a conventional 8 type player who I’d imagine being able to play in a midfield alongside a player like Rice. Regardless, 16m for Ruiz would be a nice get.

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I think people underestimate how savvy Rice is going forward, he’s a massive part of West Ham’s transition in midfield with Soucek as the destroyer letting Rice link midfield and attack. The question is could Ruiz do the dirty work Rice does? I haven’t watched enough of him to say for sure but I would doubt it. Though if you had Ruiz where Xhaka is playing now in front of Partey but behind Odegaard then I think our football would be more fluid in transition. Even though Xhaka is doing well there he still has his limitations.

Don’t get me wrong Rice would be my number one pick to partner Partey but for this kind of money, for a nice player like Ruiz, I’d be all over that. Our midfield depth is so bad I wouldn’t be against two CM’s coming in.

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Yeah this was basically my key thought regarding the two of them (Ruiz v Rice).

Rice just seems like the type of player we wouldn’t sign anyway, so I guess it’s a bit of a moot point. Seems like a United or Chelsea purchase but would be happy to be dead wrong on that call haha

We’re not going to spend 80m on Rice because we need at least that to get a decent striker but if we did get him and played him to his strengths, it’s almost guaranteed to strengthen a position that we have been weak in for too long.
We proved this tactic works, when on one of the rare occassions we have gone for the best in a position we needed top quality in, we got Aubameyang who was an instant success.

But we wasted more than 200m on unproven talent like Pepe, Xhaka, Mustafi, Lacazette, Perez, Torreira, etc, who are high earning, low performers that we can’t get rid of.

There are no guarantees in football but there are certain players where the risk is considerably lower, who will almost certainly be a success and this failure to buy these type of players is a false economy. It has not only seen us fall out of the CL but has cost the club a fortune in transfer fees, as well as massive wages.

Whoever Rice goes to will have a top quality player that will consistently play at that level and if it’s us who gets him, he’ll automatically make a massive difference to the team.

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Rice in the 8 to replace Xhaka’s current role would be outstanding. Absolute driver. Midfield of him, Partey, Odegaard with Smith-Rowe and Saka either side would be disgustingly beautiful.

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Rice and Partey would form an awesome double pivot, but both similar type of players. I also see Ruiz as a No.8 that could play alongside Rice or Partey and would be a perfect replacement for Xhaka. I think Rice and Ruiz are my two top midfield targets for this summer. Those type of additions give us plenty of options to switch to a 4-3-3 or maintain a 4-2-3-1 depending on the opposition.

Isn’t this all a moot point as he’s already basically a Chelsea player?

Didn’t he come through their academy?

Yeah, but with any luck Chelsea won’t be able to spend big any more. For a while at least anyway.

We’ll just snap up Mason Mount as well then Rice will defo come to us :sweat_smile:

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I could never trust Rice after he betrayed my country. I couldn’t watch him play for Arsenal as I’d always be thinking he would betray my club too.

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Preach my brother :raised_hands:

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  • Sir Declan Rice
  • VvD
  • Kane

0 voters

Easy decision :grin:

Exactly, Kane.

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Kane is transformative to our team.

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Not to mention the emotional damage it would do to a generation of Spurs fans. Sol Campbell on steroids.

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As much as I can’t stand him, Kane is exactly what we need.
Rice is a great player but won’t make the same sort of difference that Kane would.
Although I’d settle for Rice and DCL. :grinning:

Choosing Declan Rice is what we call in OA 2017 speak a hipster choice.

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