West Ham signed the paperwork for the £105m sale of Declan Rice to Arsenal on Friday; one Hammers insider told Sky Sports News: “I’ve never known anything like this saga”; Gunners set to announce deal before leaving for US tour on Sunday
West Ham have now signed the deal to sell captain Declan Rice after finally receiving paperwork from Arsenal.
The transfer was agreed eight days ago and the Hammers were becoming increasingly frustrated by the delay to complete the deal.
However, West Ham have now signed to deal to sell Rice to Arsenal, who are set to announce their club-record signing before heading to the US for a pre-season tour on Sunday.
The hold-up was being caused by delays with the paperwork being drawn up by Arsenal’s lawyers.
As far as West Ham were aware, Rice had passed his Gunners medical and had been training regularly while on holiday in Portugal.
The deal is broken down into an initial payment of £100m with £5m in add-ons and will eclipse Arsenal’s previous record purchase, which is currently Nicolas Pepe from Lille for £72m in 2019.
Rice’s signing will be just short of the British transfer record, which was set by Chelsea when they paid Benfica £106.8m for Enzo Fernandez in January.
Arsenal did conclude the £38m signing of Jurrien Timber, who has signed a five-year contract, on Friday.
The Gunners have paid Ajax £34m up front for Timber, with the remainder of the fee made up in performance-related add-ons.
Timber has been signed as a right-back – a role that was predominantly fulfilled by Ben White last season – but can also play at centre-back, and has previously attracted interest from Manchester United.
If Arsenal needed any further convincing over the merits of a move for Declan Rice, they got it just after the half-hour mark during their 2-2 draw with West Ham at the London Stadium in April.
Mikel Arteta’s side were two goals up and seemingly cruising towards a victory which would have sent them six points clear of Manchester City. But it all changed with a moment of quick-thinking from a player they now hope to make their record signing.
Rice, seeing Kieran Tierney about to aim a pass towards Thomas Partey deep in the Arsenal half, set off on a sprint to close the Ghanaian down, reaching him just in time to steal possession, then carrying the ball into the box and finding the onrushing Lucas Paqueta.
The subsequent penalty, won by Paqueta and scored by Said Benrahma, shifted the momentum of the game away from Arsenal. Perhaps even that of the title race too. And it started with Rice.
That passage of play showed many of the qualities that make Rice so appealing to Arsenal: the anticipation to spot the opportunity; the speed and power to get there and emerge with the ball; the composure to set up his team-mate and force the penalty.
