Arsenal to complete ‘HISTORICAL’ transfer – Fabrizio Romano

Robin Bairner

• Updated: 5 Jul 2023 06:40 BST
• 3 min read

Arsenal are on the brink of completing the “historical” signing of Declan Rice from West Ham, according to Fabrizio Romano, who has given the transfer his “here we go” seal of approval.

Rice has been linked with a move to the Gunners since the start of the year, when FootballTransfers exclusively revealed that the 24-year-old England international had made a move to the Emirates Stadium his priority.

The central midfielder had previously been expected to move to Manchester United, Chelsea or Liverpool, while Manchester City emerged with late interest in the player.

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Arsenal, though, have beaten competition from the other ‘Big Six’ Premier League clubs to win a transfer that will cost a club record fee of more than £100 million (€117m). The move to secure Rice will easily eclipse the deal that saw the Gunners sign Nicolas Pepe from Lille in 2019 for €80m.

“This day will make history in English football because Arsenal got their man,” Romano posted in the early hours of Wednesday.

“Finally we can say: ‘Here we go: Declan Rice to Arsenal.’

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“The agreement between Arsenal and West Ham is done. Late night agreement on payment terms after negotiating all day. Now the agreement is completed: on payment terms, on the fee, on everything.

“Declan Rice will undergo a medical test this week, probably on Friday. This is the idea of all parties but it’s just waiting for the final check, but it’s going to be this week definitely for Declan Rice.

“Then the official statement: Declan Rice new Arsenal player.

“It will make history because he’ll be the most expensive English player in the history of the game.”

Romano then broke down the scale of the record-breaking deal.

“It will be £105 million. The upfront cost will be £100m with £5m in add ons,” Romano revealed. “Declan Rice is the most expensive signing in the history of Arsenal, one of the most important clubs in the world.

“This is a very important moment.

“Let me mention Mikel Arteta and Edu – the two key men at Arsenal,” he continued. “Edu never lost the pace in the key moments of the story. He’s been on point, when it was really tense, when Manchester City entered the race.

“Arsenal never panicked. They decided to wait and to send in their best proposal.

“Arsenal decided in January to go for Rice. He was their top target already at the end of January, preparing for the summer transfer window, and now they’ve got their man after very long and complicated negotiations with West Ham.”