Sky Sports journalist Paul Gilmour has claimed that Manchester City are confident of securing a transfer deal for Declan Rice.
Over the past few days, it has been reported that City and Arsenal are the two main frontrunners in the race to land a deal for the West Ham United midfielder.
Now though, one journalist has shared some behind-the-scenes details on the saga and what the current feeling is on the matter from the Citizens.
City confident of Rice deal
Speaking on Sky Sports, Gilmour said this about the situation surrounding Rice and City’s stance on him amid Arsenal’s hunt for his signature.
He said: “Yeah, they both want the player, Manchester City, we’re told, are confident of getting him.
“They are willing to pay £75m plus £15m in two instalments. Arsenal remain in talks with West Ham, but West Ham are holding out and they are quite happy that these two clubs are bidding over Declan Rice, and they would like a bidding war, it suits the selling club in this case.
“Arsenal are still very much in the mix we’re told, but Manchester City are very confident of getting him.”
Taking into account how Arsenal have seen two bids, the second of which being a total of £90m, turned down by West Ham, this shows what sort of fee it could take from City to land a deal for the Englishman.
With the 24-year-old previously sharing his ambition of playing for a team that wins trophies domestically and in Europe, this would presumably make a move to the Etihad Stadium his ideal next step from that point of view given how they’ve just won the treble.
This could be why the Manchester club are apparently confident of securing the England international’s signature this summer, beating Arsenal in doing so.
Moving forward, if City are confident of signing Rice, all they may need to do is come up with an offer that the Hammers feel is suitable enough for them to accept so that this saga can be brought to an end.
