The Reader’s Digest: Pre Summer Transfer Speculation

IronHerb

Diops having a good season at Fulham.

alderz

I think the thing for me is that I don’t want another summer where we end up bringing in loads of players, and I would much much rather we focus on fullbacks and maybe another attacking midfielder. Letting Oggy go just means we’d have another job to do. (That said, even if we did sign another CB I’d still keep Oggy as fifth choice given the injury records of Zouma and Aguerd).

OutcastLondoner

IronHerb said:

Diops having a good season at Fulham.

They play a high line, right? We were doing the same under Pellegrini when he was good.

Ravel49

Manchester United think they can convince West Ham's 24-year-old England midfielder Declan Rice to join them in the summer. (Football Insider)

Ravel49

thornburyiron

Do you think he blames them for saddling him with us 😀

Fortuneseeker

https://www.hammers.news/news/real-reason-behind-gianluca-scamacca-agent-split-emerges-but-should-west-ham-be-concerned/

IronHerb

But Hammers News is the bloke down the pub.

buffybegood

IronHerb said:

But Hammers News is the bloke down the pub.

Aren't we all? 🤔🤔🤔😂🤣😂

Fortuneseeker

IronHerb said:

But Hammers News is the bloke down the pub.

Must be the same pub used by the Sun journalists!

ASLEFshrugged

Fortuneseeker said:

IronHerb said:

But Hammers News is the bloke down the pub.

Must be the same pub used by the Sun journalists!

Only if the pub is in Milton Keynes

Hammers News is actually two blokes down the pub, Damien Charles Lucas (editor) and Antony Martin, both based in Bucks/Berks/Herts area the last time I checked their Linkdin pages.

Nothing they write is original, everything is gleaned from other sources so as buffybegood says they're not much different from any of us - except we post on a forum rather than publishing articles on our own websites.

Ravel49

Welcome to the latest edition of #riceroulette

Manchester City have emerged as contenders to sign England midfielder Declan Rice, 25, if West Ham are tempted to part with their £100m-rated captain. (Teamtalk)

Ravel49

West Ham have joined the list of clubs watching the progress of 19-year-old Bristol City midfielder Alex Scott, who is valued at £25m by the Championship club and has also been linked with Newcastle, Leeds, Tottenham and Wolves. (Mail

thornburyiron

Gary Neville has agreed with Keane saying Rice has a long way to go before he’s worth big money. Suggests Utd should go for him at £50-60M max as he’s nowhere near the likes of Casemiro or Rodri.
If that’s all we are offered then I reckon we should refuse and he stays because I doubt we’d get a top replacement for that money.

Hamstew

Ex Man U players and fans trying to price down one of their transfer targets. Imagine my shock.

PrestonHammer

They played 90 million for Antony, they'll pay 90 million plus for Rice.

Yeoldhammer

he isn't going for 50-60m, if Man Utd don't want him for the 100m it will cost to get him, i'm sure Chelsea / City will throw their hats in for it at that price. I even bet Arsenal and Liverpool will go big for a signing too and depending on where Bellingham ends up i imagine the loser will chuck money in on Rice.

Edit: the Summer window will be a huge market for Midfielders. Arsenal went in on Jesus last season, Liverpool Nunez and Gakpo, City on Haaland, Chelsea on Fernandez. A lot of the big 6 already have their forwards wrapped up so can't see any big money going in for centre forwards. I have a feeling the DM's and AM's is where the big money splurging will happen in the top 6.

Bazshuayi

I think Man Utd or Liverpool at this moment are favourites for him on the premise that they actually need him.

Chelsea have spent 100M on the Argie. City have Rodri and unless they think of swapping him for Phillips I dont see them going for him this season. I also dont see why Rice would want to be on Citys bench a lot of the time (just my opinion though).

Arsenal have Partey and now Jorginho so I dont see why they'd lay out that sort of money for Rice.

So Utd for him to play with Casimero or Liverpool (who totally do need a midfielder or two) if they dont get Bellingham.

I am not sure I agree that Rice hasnt kicked on. He's playing in a team thats struggling and he cant be expected to carry the whole team especially when we are so defensively orientated. It would help if our forwards bonded (Scam and Ings), Bowen was last seasons player and our wing backs created more quality. Thats without the likes of the other midfield helping out.

That all said, now we have a big chunk of players available (and Cornet to come), hopefully we'll play better...

Lukerz

What Neville & Keane have not considered is that if there is competition for his signature the price drives up. Clearly if it’s only Man Utd, they may be able to negotiate a lower fee. But Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal etc (plus any clubs from abroad).

If nobody wants to pay what we want, I’d just keep him for another 2 years.

alderz

I think we should just keep him for the whole of his contract unless we get an offer of around £100m. I know we won't want to lose him on a free, but him staying makes us more marketable, and increases our chances of finishing higher in the league. Every position in the Premier League is worth £2.2m in prize money. If we kept Rice for his whole contract and it helped us finish 5 places higher in the table for two extra seasons, that's worth £22m in additional prize money.

The other thing to consider is that I'm pretty sure any replacement will cost more in wages than Rice does. Isn't he on £30k a week? If that's still the case (and I think it is because he hasn't signed another deal) then there's no way we sign a quality new CM/DM on less than double that.

IronHerb

Man U's chief scout Gary Neville went from trying to recruit Rice on the cheap on Wednesday to Kane on Thursday.

Ravel49

Tottenham are eyeing a summer move for Bristol City midfielder Alex Scott. The 19-year-old England youth international is also interesting Crystal Palace and West Ham. (Sun)

Fortuneseeker

Keane v Rice

https://www.premierleague.com/players/407/Roy-Keane/stats
https://www.premierleague.com/players/15202/Declan-Rice/stats

Slacker

I see Bobby Firmino is “ set to leave Liverpool in the summer at the end of his contract “.

Ok, I’ll start it 😳, we should be etc etc

Ravel49

Baz WOULD be all over that..

claretandbluesky

We need Newcastle to get interested and I suspect they will. I don't think he will end up there but I hope they will try and tempt us to push up what the others will end up paying.

Bazshuayi

Bobby Firmino I believe will go to Italy as half their teams have been linked with him. Baz... WOULD be all over that!! I might even fly back to England to watch him play for us

Ravel49

Aston Villa are set for a three-way transfer battle this summer with Everton and West Ham over Flamengo's prolific 25-year-old Brazil striker Pedro. (Fichajes - in Spanish)

Ravel49

Chelsea want to sign 23-year-old Portuguese attacker Joao Felix, who is on loan at the Blues from Atletico Madrid, and West Ham's England midfielder Declan Rice, 24, in the summer and plan to sell five players to help cover the cost. (Fichajes - in Spanish)

Ravel49

Napoli's Nigeria striker Victor Osimhen, 24, and West Ham's England midfielder Declan Rice, 24, are Arsenal's main transfer targets this summer. (Sun)