Declan Rice has ended the season with West Ham United, having helped the club secure their first trophy in 43 years with victory in the Europa Conference League final. With the opening of this summer’s transfer window, a number of Premier League heavyweights are circling around Rice, with West Ham chairman David Sullivan confirming the 24 year-old has his heart set on leaving the club and they will not stand in the way of his wish. However, the Hammers are demanding more than £100 million to part with their star player.
Arsenal are considered to be the long-term pole sitters in the race for Rice’s signature, with reports suggesting Rice wants to remain in London and is keen to commit the peak years of his career to Arsenal. The Gunners are preparing a £90 million bid to sign the England international, which is £10 million short of West Ham’s valuation. Manchester United also have a long-standing interest in acquiring Rice’s services and look set to submit a rival bid to Arsenal’s offer. Earlier in May, United were said to be confident of convincing Rice to snub Arsenal’s advances to instead head to Old Trafford.
Unsurprisingly, Chelsea are one of the teams who have thrown their name into the hat to land Rice, with doubts over the future of existing midfielders N’Golo Kante, Mateo Kovacic and Conor Gallagher. Liverpool are also planning a big summer rebuild in the transfer market having failed to qualify for next season’s Champions League, but it remains to be seen whether or not they would move for Rice – or if they could even afford him. Finally, Bayern Munich are ready to rival the Premier League interest and have already made a play to bring him to Bavaria, with manager Thomas Tuchel having personally spoken to Rice over the phone in an attempt to convince him to move to the Bundesliga. Rice is said to be ‘open’ to a move to Germany, but his preference is to remain in the Premier League.