“Going to be crucial” – Fabrizio Romano expecting ‘busy week’ for Arsenal

Arsenal are set to go head-to-head with Manchester City for Declan Rice.

After enjoying another fine campaign with West Ham, Rice, 24, who guided the Hammers to the Europa Conference League at the start of the month, is arguably the Premier League’s most in-demand midfielder.

Despite being admired by almost all of the country’s top clubs, the race to sign him now appears to be down to a two-horse race between Arsenal and champions City.

Valued at an eye-watering £100m by West Ham, and already seeing three bids turned down, for Arsenal to sign the Englishman, it goes without saying that they’ll need to cough up potentially a record-breaking fee (Football Transfers).

What has Fabrizio Romano said about Arsenal signing Declan Rice?

And leading transfer expert and CaughtOffside columnist Fabricius Romanhas now warned Arsenal fans, as well as supporters of Manchester City, to brace themselves for a ‘busy week’.

“Both Arsenal and also Manchester City have an intention to bid for Declan Rice,” Romano said on Monday’s Debrief podcast.

“[…] So I am sure it is going to be a busy week with official proposals.”

Going on to explain the deal’s most important aspect, Romano revealed how West Ham will prioritise an offer’s structure over its outright figure.

“Let me clarify one thing – it’s going to be crucial the structure of the deal,” he added.

“The payment terms are really important for West Ham to accept the bid. It’s not just the value of the bid, they want something close to £100m, but also how much is going to be paid this summer and next summer. They don’t want very long payment terms so this is going to be a crucial factor in the negotiations for Declan Rice.”

Which club do you think will end up signing Rice? – Let us know in the comments.