Report: How Arsenal are feeling internally about Manchester City’s potential Declan Rice hijack

Add as preferred source on Google

Manchester City are emerging as serious rivals to Arsenal in the race to sign Declan Rice this summer.

That is according to The Athletic who report that the Premier League champions are preparing their own approach for the player after the Gunners made an opening bid.

The prospect of going head-to-head with Man City over any transfer target is frightening, and according to The Express, Arsenal aren’t keen to get involved in a bidding war for Rice with City.

In our view, that could mean that City have the advantage here.

Sadly for the Gunners, City have much greater financial might than the north London club, and if they want to blow Arsenal out of the water, there may be no counter-approach going in.

While it’s disappointing to hear that Arsenal could give up on Rice if a bidding war breaks out, it is an understandable stance.

As much as City are the kings of the transfer market, they’re also the kings of gamesmanship in this market.

Indeed, on a number of occasions we’ve seen City use their own interest to force their rivals to overpay for a player. They did exactly that with both Fred and Harry Maguire when they moved to Manchester United, and Arsenal don’t want to be drawn into that same trap.

If Arsenal miss out on the player, it will be a huge blow, but as the old saying goes, there are plenty more fish in the sea, especially when you’ve put the best part of £100m aside to sign a player like Rice.

Keep an eye on this one, because if City’s interest grows, Arsenal may well end up dropping out of this race.