Arsenal's priority target for the summer transfer window is West Ham United captain Declan Rice, football.london understands.
football.london understands that the Gunners are confident they have a strong offer for Rice but they also feel that it will ultimately come down to the player to decide amid interest from a host of other top European clubs, including the likes of Bayern Munich and Manchester United.
The Gunners are keen to avoid a bidding war and they’ve demonstrated in the past that they are willing to walk away from priority targets like Lisandro Martinez and Mykhailo Mudryk - who eventually joined United and Chelsea respectively. However, a move to Bayern is unlikely, according to The Guardian, who claim that Rice would prefer to stay in England, where his young family are settled.
The report goes on to say that there is mutual admiration between the player and the aforementioned Arteta, who rates the tough-tackling midfielder for more than his defensive attributes. Manchester United may also decide to make a late move but their focus is said to be on recruiting a centre-forward, leaving the Gunners as the current favourites to sign the Hammers star.
The north London outfit are preparing a bid for Rice, but they want to be respectful to the Hammers who are playing Fiorentina in the Europa Conference League final on Wednesday evening. A first formal offer is expected to be submitted after that, with West Ham boss David Moyes admitting that his star player is likely to leave in the coming weeks. "We honestly hope he stays," said Moyes when asking about Rice's future last month.
"We'd love for him to be a West Ham player but we are aware that might not be the case at the end of the season. So that's one of the scenarios around planning.
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"There are plans that we have Dec here but we're also fully aware there is a good chance we won't have him." If the Gunenrs do end up securing a deal to bring the England international to the Emirates Stadium, it will likely shatter their club-record transfer fee, which currently sits at £72million.
That money was spent on recruiting winger Nicolas Pepe back in the summer of 2019, a move that didn't quite work out as planned for the north Londoners.
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