Transfer gossip: Arsenal and Man Utd learn Declan Rice price; Ramos the new Ronaldo?
Declan Rice is for sale this summer but he will cost a pretty penny. Will they accept Rob Holding in part-exchange from Arsenal?
DECLAN PRICE IS HIGH
West Ham will allow Declan Rice to leave the club this summer for either £120m or £100m and a player, according to Sky Sports. The Hammers respect their captain’s wish to play in the Champions League, which probably rules out Liverpool and definitely rules out Chelsea.
Manchester United are being credited with interest – with Erik ten Hag said to have been ‘awestruck’ by Rice during Sunday’s 1-0 defeat to West Ham – but Arsenal are still said to be the favourites to sign Rice, though that is a fair whack of a price. Would they take £100m plus Rob Holding?
MAN UTD EYE RAMOS
‘Man Utd plot record bid for Benfica star to join Harry Kane in attacking revolution’ is the headline in the Mirror – which feels like way too much investment in strikers – but it quickly becomes clear that they are telling us about an alternative to Kane in the form of the Portuguese striker Goncalo Ramos, who has scored 24 goals this season.
Will it even be a record bid? Well, the numbers are very vague with talk of ‘a deal worth between £70million-£100m, including add-ons’, so it seems highly unlikely to actually eclipse the £89.3m United paid Juventus for Paul Pogba.
So the ‘exclusive’ story is actually a link we have read several times before and the price range is massive. So not a great deal to see here.
Elsewhere, Eintracht Frankfurt have made it clear that alternative striker target Randal Kolo Muani will cost them or Bayern Munich in excess of £78m. Strikers do not come cheap.
DE GEA DEAL DONE
David De Gea has agreed vastly reduced terms on a new Manchester United deal, according to the Daily Telegraph. We wonder whether the deal was agreed before or after that brainfade v West Ham on Sunday. The Spaniard will earn a lower basic salary but will have more performance-based incentives. So that’s a lower basic salary then,
The Telegraph story suggests that Brentford have already lined up a successor to David Raya if he joins United to give De Gea competition, with Freiburg and Netherlands goalkeeper Mark Flekken their target.