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Declan Rice has been given permission to have his Arsenal medical as the first big transfer saga of the summer comes to an end.
The England midfielder had always been the Gunners number one target, but after seeing several bids rejected, and Manchester City enter the race to sign him, his future remained in doubt.
That was before Arsenal returned with a new bid of £100million guaranteed, plus £5 million in add-ons, a record for a British player.
After City indicated they were not prepared to match that valuation for the player, West Ham finally decided to accept the offer.
Rice himself has always made it clear that his preference was to stay in London and sign for Arsenal.
There is still work to do on the structure of the deal – West Ham want the money paid over a shorter time period than the Gunners are currently proposing. But that is a technicality to be ironed out in final negotiations.
Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.