Manchester City made a ‘huge’ bid for Declan Rice that was pretty much exactly the same as Arsenal’s bid. Gazumped, my arse.
How much is that ȿτɑτємєɴτ in the window?
It’s such a bloody ‘huge opening offer’ that it amounted to exactly the same as Arsenal’s bid (£90m) except with an ever-so-slightly-bigger guaranteed fee of £80m rather than £75m. Huge.
Now Pep Guardiola’s side have pounced on their rivals’ hesitancy with the ȿτɑτємєɴτ offer.
Itisa ȿτɑτємєɴτ offer, but only if the ȿτɑτємєɴτ is ‘We don’t really want Declan Ricethatmuch but what we absolutely don’t want is for Arsenal to get him on the cheap’.
And if you thought that was bad; check out this headline on the never-knowingly-undersoldMirror:
Declan Rice has made transfer preference clear as Man City gazump Arsenal with huge bid
‘Gazump’? According to the dictionary, ‘gazump’ means ‘make a higher offer for a house than (someone whose offer has already been accepted by the seller) and thus succeed in acquiring the property’.
Even if we ignore the whole footballer/house stuff, this fails on just about every part of that definition. It’s not a higher offer; the original offer had not been accepted; Man City have not succeeded in acquiring the property/midfielder.
It’s also not, relatively, a ‘huge bid’ but we knew that already. And so does writer Tom Victor, for he is not daft.
Declan Rice is still understood to favour a move to Arsenal, despite Manchester City making a ȿτɑτємєɴτ of intent with a bid for the England midfielder.
West Ham captain Rice is expected to leave the London Stadium this summer after leading the team to Europa Conference League glory. The East London side continue to wait for a bidder to meet their £100m+ asking price, though – a sum which could see Rice match the British record fee set by Jack Grealish’s 2021 move to City.
The British record has since been broken by Enzo Fernandez but carry on…
Arsenal have so far seen multiple bids for the 24-year-old knocked back, prompting suggestions they could pursue other targets. Still, despite City being very much in the race, Rice’s preference is an Arsenal switch which would allow him to remain in the capital.
It’s almost like Arsenal have not been gazumped at all.
