Club-record proposal for 24yo England midfielder expected to be turned down by #WHUFC - but #AFC getting closer to acceptable fee for top target @TheAthleticFC
Arsenal must be confident about this one because we are not jumping to West Ham's valuation or worried about Chelsea/Bayern/Man U/Man City coming in for the player right now. Still though if the add-ons are achievable that will still make him the most expensive transfer in our club's history.
Let me just point out that people wanted to us to play more hardball with negotiations. I understand we all crave our carbohydrates, but 1) West Ham know they're losing him, 2) Declan has privately declared he only wants us through multiple channels, and 3) our bid is within 10% of the seller's (presumed) valuation.
Don't let Twitter tell you that this is another insulting, disgraceful bid (fuck you, Naylor).
I think that's dependent on Rice's willingness to go to another team. He doesn't want to cause a stink (take note, Balogun!), but I think he'd press internally if a bid is close the valuation, and WHU might give in since he's been a very good servant. Let's hope!
I've seen different numbers bandied about but that's the figure Romano quoted recently. He wasn't clear if that was only the up-front part or the total, but I'd think it's the latter and find it unfathomable that Arsenal would make a worse offer the second time around for their top target. I genuinely expect we upped the bid by 10 million, but focused on add-ons, which WHU understandably might not have liked.
First offer was 80+10, I believe, and West Ham was a little mad that the add-ons were (in their mind) unachievable (e.g. winning the Prem, winning the Champions League). As someone else said in this thread already, the 15 in this new offer, if it's accurate, must be for easier targets for Declan/us to hit.