Arsenal Announce Jurrien Timber And Declan Rice But Their Relationship With West Ham Far From Ideal
Written By Onyeka Daniel
In this summer transfer window, English Premier League side, Arsenal are having the best of time after completing two deals that could close their transfer activities with less than two months to the kick off of the 2023/24 EPL season after narrowly missing out on the EPL title to Manchester City last season.
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Already, the Gunners have signed Kai Havertz from Chelsea and have now followed it up with the signing of Jurrien Timber and Declan Rice from Ajax and West Ham United respectively.
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The midfielder became Britain’s most expensive player on Saturday as Arsenal signed the England midfielder from West Ham for £105m. Rice’s move surpassed the previous record £100m fee paid by Manchester City for Jack Grealish in 2021 as Arsenal continue their spending spree in a bid to challenge for the Premier League title next season.
The 24-year-old said in a letter to West Ham supporters his desire to play at the “very highest level” lay behind his decision to join Arsenal. Rice’s switch to the Emirates Stadium on a long-term contract comes just months after he lifted West Ham’s first major trophy since 1980 in the Europa Conference League final against Fiorentina.
As for Timber, the Gunners will pay an initial fee of just over £34m for the Netherlands international on a five-year deal, with the remainder payable in add-ons. Timber, who was also a target for Manchester United came through the Ajax academy and has made 160 senior appearances for the Dutch club, completed his medical and finalised personal terms and was unveiled today.
He has 15 caps for the Netherlands and started four of their five games at last year’s World Cup in Qatar, where they were knocked out by eventual winners Argentina in the quarter-finals. He can be described as a utility player. He has played primarily as a centre-back in a back four for Ajax and also played in a back three for the Dutch national team.
But he is equally capable of slotting in at right-back and also has the capacity to tuck into midfield. The Dutchman has been a long-term target for Arsenal and is their second signing of the summer with Rice being the third.
Meanwhile…
Relations between Arsenal and their London rivals have become strained over the course of the last month after the bidding war the Hammers envisaged would take place for their skipper failed to materialize.
The player reportedly made it clear that he would only join Arsenal, which is why Manchester City and Bayern Munich had to withdraw from the race, to the detriment of the Hammers who had been expecting a bidding war.
Club chairman, David Sullivan revealed that Rice had turned down several offers of an improved contract to remain. “I would like to make it clear to our supporters that we did not want to sell Declan,’ he wrote.
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“We wanted to build our team around him and made a series of improved, long-term contract offers to secure his future. However, once Declan made it clear that he wished to move on and seek a new challenge, the club felt it would not be right to stand in his way, acting in the best interests of West Ham United.’
Negotiations subsequently centered on the structure of the payments West Ham would receive once a mammoth £105million fee was agreed with this dragging on for days before an agreement was finally reached in the late hours of yesterday.
Arsenal had two offers which fell well short of West Ham’s asking price rejected last month before a deal was finally reached but in their farewell message, West Ham refused to name the club that their captain would be joining, which is an indication to how strained the relationship between the two clubs is at the moment.
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