Man City could now flex their financial power and sign 24-year-old Newcastle target

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Manchester City may barge their way to the front of the queue for West Ham’s Declan Rice after Arsenal’s initial bid was rejected, while Newcastle United remain interested.

It’s probably safe to say that the vast majority of Newcastle fans had given up all hope of signing Declan Rice from West Ham this summer.

The 24-year-old England international looked to be on his way to Arsenal. Every media outlet was writing about it as if it was a done deal, but the Gunners suffered a setback yesterday as West Ham rejected their initial £80million bid according to The Guardian.

West Ham are expecting Man City to come in with a bid for Rice

West Ham have long said that it would take at least £100million to prise Rice away from the Hammers, so it was quite an audacious attempt by Arsenal to go in at £80million.

Perhaps they were feeling confident due to all the indicators pointing towards it being a nailed-on inevitability. However, it looks like that hubris may be their undoing according to The Guardian who say West Ham now expect Manchester City to swoop in with an improved offer.

In fact they feel that Manchester City could blow Arsenal’s offer out of the water due to their financial might.

What’s all this got to do with us? Well, The Guardian also mentions that Newcastle remain interested in Rice along with Manchester United, while saying that Bayern Munich have walked away after accepting Rice is unlikely to move to Germany.

Newcastle could feel that they might still have a chance to land Rice

The feeling has always been that Rice would be unlikely to move away from London, but now the Northerners are back in play, so if Manchester City is suddenly an option, surely that means Newcastle are too.

Our biggest hurdle was the fact that we’re as far away from London as it gets in the Premier League, but if he’s open to moving away from the Capital, surely we have enough to win him over.

Realistically, it’s unlikely, but we should never give up hope. After all, we are massive!