The Next Transfer Window

alderz

OldCastleSwift said:

Wild rumour on Twitter this morning:

Someone's dad who is holidaying with Huddersfield's chairman has said that the chairman has heard that Rice has already agreed terms with Chelsea and it's now just a matter of West Ham and Chelsea agreeing a fee.

Same thing happened with Phillip Billing, apparently; he'd agreed personal terms with Bournemouth 8 weeks before the move happened.

That seems like nonsense to me, tbh

OldCastleSwift

More than likely.

But I'm less confident than most that Rice will see out this season with us.

Lukerz

I’m not sure why the Huddersfield Chairman would know that anyway? Not even in the same league.

Those pics with all the Chelsea crew aren’t helping. Yeah it’s probs as he is best mates with Mount, who is friends with the rest, but it just adds to the gossip & no doubt a word in his ear. Lots of users now coming out saying stuff like ‘I’ve heard the deal is done’.

Although Fredericks was also there. He must be off to the blues too?

OldCastleSwift

Lukerz said:

I’m not sure why the Huddersfield Chairman would know that anyway? Not even in the same league.

No, but he'll have a lot of contacts in the game. He'll still have relationships with PL chairmen, agents etc. so it's not unfeasible that he would have an inside line.

But I agree about the holiday with the Chelsea boys. Posting photos with a Chelsea legend probably hasn't helped, either.

ASLEFshrugged

OldCastleSwift said:

Posting photos with a Chelsea legend probably hasn't helped, either.

If that "Chelsea legend" is John Terry then Rice has already said they have a close relationship, Terry is his "mentor" and they meet up regularly

OldCastleSwift

It was Drogba, ASLEF. So it was either a chance meeting, or there's a big Chelsea holiday happening somewhere.

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

It was Drogba

I'm still not worried, people saying Rice has agreed doesn't mean the club have

Unlike Payet/Arnie, I can't imagine Rice sulking especially with the Euros coming up he knows he will have to impress this year as he isn't a guaranteed starter

Also, unlike Arnie/Payet, Declan has youth on his side. If he does end up sulking and his performances drop, there is no guarantee we will drop our asking price because of his age like we did with those two

And finally he has a contract until 2024 with the club having an option to extend it for another year, putting us in a position of strength for negotiating

All i see here is a two best mates going on holiday and rumours from a mate of a mate of a mate of a mate of a mate who is "in the know"

OldCastleSwift

Champo, it's true that we hold all the aces from a negotiation point of view. His contract means we should be able to hold out for absolute top dollar.

I too can't see Rice kicking off, but equally, I can't see our board turning down a £70m bid. If we accept, there's really no reason for him to stay with us.

Would be nice if the board came out and said he's not for sale and for Rice to say he's not leaving, but I don't think either are naive enough to do that.

Lukerz

We’re in a win-win.

He goes now, we get £70m, he doesn’t, we get Rice.

The issue is, if we really need to sell before we buy, we may be forced into a position to sell him soon to give us time to reinvest the money, which may put his price down a bit.

OutcastLondoner

The only thing about Jorginho not going ahead is I keep hearing Chelsea are thinking of Rice as their solution at CB. But I think he'll stay unless there's stupid money involved and I don't think this is going to be a transfer window that involves those kinds of fees.

Jorderz_Moyes_will_be_Moyes

Agree with Outcast. I don't see this transfer window involving silly money, and we'd be mad not to wait another year when (hopefully) the pandemic is on the way out and clubs are paying big cash again.

Chelsea have already spent a lot and are struggling to strike a deal for Havertz.

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

As someone above mentioned, Chelsea are also in a position where they need to sell before they can buy

They have burnt through the Hazard/Morara money (some of which is bound to go on Havertz), and they cant find buyers for batshuyai, Zappacosta, Drinkwater, Bakayoko, Moses etc.

Lukerz said it well, it's a win win. We either get a cash windfall that is unheard if for west ham (still bitter we only got £45mil for Arnie and Payet combined when they were worth that individually) or keep arguably our best player

alderz

Chelsea are meant to spend £90m on Havertz. I’d be very shocked to see then drop another £60m+ on Rice this summer.

Lukerz

West Ham still yet to pay at least one missing instalment of money for Sebastien Haller.
http://sportwitness.co.uk/west-ham-sebastien-haller-eintracht-frankfurt-transfer/

steve

Great just Great ,Thats all we need ,Lets hope its something and nothing .If we are baned from transfers ,Does that mean we keep Rice

Lukerz

And a lot of noise on Twitter, guy who works for Sky Sports Italy, that Chelsea have made a first official bid of £50m for Rice.

claretandbluesky

I wouldn't consider 70m or keep Rice a win win, in my view that would be 20-30m under-priced and a declaration that all the talk about wanting to move to another level was rubbish. It's players like Rice that take you there and if you don't suddenly get a sugar daddy to buy them you then need keep them when you find them. If you don't keep them when you find them its evidence that actually you have accepted your position as also rans. In my view.

Fortuneseeker

c&bsky, I agree with you but our owners don’t have the funds to build a team around Declan so I don’t know what the best outcome is for us moving forward unless he can wait 3 years until we are hopefully taken over by someone with the money to create something special.

buffybegood

The best outcome, imo, is that we get at least one more season out of Rice. In all honesty, he is above our level, and the level we're likely to be at for the foreseeable future, but we'll be far more able to attract a reasonable replacement next summer if we finish say 8-10th than now, after our last campaign where we only guaranteed our place in the Premier League in our penultimate match. Keeping him long term, and building a team around him is just not realistic with our current owners imo, as much as I'd like to see it happen.

thornburyiron

According to Sky, West Ham day they’ve not received a £50M bid from Chelsea and it would be laughed off. They said he’s not for sale and hope he’ll be with the club for many years. He’s contracted until 2024 with a further years option.

Lukerz

Latest reports today (papers) are that Ajeti will now join Celtic in a permanent transfer worth £5m. West Ham have held firm on a permanent deal, & not a loan with an option.

Lukerz

West Ham are showing an interest in Fabio Borini, who is now a free agent (CalcioMercato).

IronHerb

Oh good. I'll just go and buy my ST now.

Slacker

Regarding the Rice saga, isn’t just part of the pain of being a West Ham fan? We’ve nearly always produced and sold excellent home grown talent.It wasn’t that long ago that half the Chelsea/England teams were our youth products.
It’s hard to watch “one of our own” playing for the likes of Chelsea, Man U or ,god forbid, Spurs but I’m afraid it was always the way unless you go back to the Brooking/Bonds era.
I’d love to be proved completely wrong but it looks to me that it’s inevitable that Declan will go.

OldCastleSwift

Lukerz said:

West Ham are showing an interest in Fabio Borini, who is now a free agent (CalcioMercato).

This is like transfer window bingo.

steve

Why is it we are only hearing about Chelsea interest in rice ,I know Mount is his best friend ,And his boyhood club but there must be other teams who want him,being english and all that ,Lets at the very lest start a bidding war and end up getting 90-100 mil for him ,And make that all the money up front

Lukerz

I agree, Steve.

You would have thought Man Utd would also want him, & City who have issues in defence next to Laporte but also need a new DM to replace Fernandinho. Not to mention Spurs & Arsenal.

Rice probably has an emotional connection to Chelsea but he can do better than that club. Has one of the best passing accuracy rates in the league. Dortmund often sign young, English players.

The only side who probably don’t need him is Liverpool. They would have him if offered, but not enough to spend the required fee on him.

Not sure why it seems to be Chelsea or nobody. I mean you only had to watch the FA Cup final & Bayern second leg to know they are miles away from being competitive in terms of trophies.

ASLEFshrugged

Slacker said:

It’s hard to watch “one of our own” playing for the likes of Chelsea, Man U or ,god forbid, Spurs but I’m afraid it was always the way unless you go back to the Brooking/Bonds era.

Brooking/Bonds era? We were just as bad before that.

We sold Martin Peters to Spurs in 1970, one of the greatest all round players ever to pull on an England shirt. Not only did be become Spurs captain he scored twice against us (and another two for Norwich)

And for the umpteenth time Billy Bonds was not "one of our own", he was 20 when he joined us in May 1967 but before that he had made 100 appearances for Charlton Athletic, making his first team debut against Northampton Town on 20 February 1965.

Deanscaleshammer

Also, I thought we got Declan from Chelsea's youth set up?

alderz

Deanscaleshammer said:

Also, I thought we got Declan from Chelsea's youth set up?

We did, but he still spent a few years in ours so he definitely counts as one of ours.