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Football

12th Jul 2023

West Ham left frustrated by Arsenal delay in Declan Rice deal

Callum Boyle

Declan Rice

A fee was agreed between the two last week

West Ham United are becoming frustrated with Arsenal’s delay in the ongoing bid to sign Declan Rice this summer.

A deal between the two was agreed eight days ago which was set to see Rice make the move to the Emirates Stadium for £105m however West Ham are still waiting for the Gunners to officially sign the deal.

Sky Sports have reported that the hold up in the deal is due to complications with the paperwork, which is being drawn up by Arsenal’s lawyers.

As for West Ham, they believe that Rice has already passed his medical, with the England international yet to return to training and instead remaining in Portugal for pre-season so far.

Arsenal meanwhile are hopeful that they can complete the deal before they fly out to the USA for their pre-season tour on Sunday.

The deal itself will reportedly see Arsenal pay a flat fee of £100m up front along with an extra £5m in add ons. It will be a record purchase for Arsenal, beating their previous deal of £72m to sign Nicolas Pepe in 2019.

In addition to Rice, Mikel Arteta is also hopeful of completing a deal to sign Jurrien Timber from Ajax, who will be brought in for a total of £38m to play the right back role.

They will both join Kai Havertz, who made the move from west London to north London after leaving two-time European champions Chelsea earlier this summer.

Arteta will also hope to ship some of his bit-part players. They include Nuno Tavares, Albert Sambi Lokonga and Cedric Soares among others.

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