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‘Because of Arsenal’ – Biggest rival ready to concede blockbuster signing to Arteta, as club-record deal inches closer

Moises Caicedo and Declan Rice

Bayern Munich are growing increasingly resigned to losing out to Arsenal in the race to sign Declan Rice, while West Ham could request a Gunners attacker be included as a makeweight, per reports.

Rice, Moises Caicedo and Ilkay Gundogan are understood to be the three high class midfielders Arsenal are pursuing this summer. Granit Xhaka’s £13m move to Bayer Leverkusen won’t be signed off until one of the three arrive – or are at the very least lined up.

Mikel Arteta is determined to add at least two new faces to his engine room, with Hammers captain Rice reportedly the priority target.

West Ham chairman, David Sullivan, recently confirmed Rice has likely played his last match for the club. Lifting the Europa Conference League represents a fine way to bow out for a player who’s been on West Ham’s books since 2014.

The battle to sign Rice is boiling down to two clubs – Arsenal and Bayern Munich. Now, according to Sky Germany’s Florian Plettenberg, Bayern aren’t far off throwing in the towel and conceding defeat.

Plettenberg tweeted Bayern remain in contact with Rice’s camp, though “within the club they are more and more realistic as they get the feeling that a transfer is very difficult.” Explaining why, Plettenberg simply stated “because of Arsenal”.

Arsenal’s record transfer remains the £72m paid to sign Nicolas Pepe from Lille in 2019. A move for Rice is likely to see that record smashed, with talkSPORT claiming West Ham could demand as much as £120m.

Arsenal will obviously attempt to negotiate a far more modest fee. However, London World recently reported Arsenal will open the bidding at £75m which is still higher than the Pepe number.

Smith Rowe could unlock Rice transfer

If the valuation gap proves too big to overcome, the Sun claim a compromise could be reached via the inclusion of Emile Smith Rowe as a makeweight.

Smith Rowe, 22, barely featured for Arsenal this year, racking up a paltry 241 minutes of action across all competitions.

His campaign was ravaged by injury, though in truth, he is not in Arsenal’s strongest eleven anyway. The chief playmaking role now belongs to Martin Odegaard who presided over a magnificent campaign.

The club captain notched 23 goal contributions in 37 Premier League appearances. For context, Smith Rowe’s total number of goals and assists combined in 96 outings for Arsenal is just 29.

The Sun state West Ham boss David Moyes has floated the idea of Smith Rowe moving the other way.

Arsenal are expected to be reluctant to part ways with their academy graduate, though that stance may change if severing ties can unlock a deal for Rice.

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