The saying goes that there is no smoke without fire, and that case there should be a rival to the Great Fire of London in the capital just to keep up with the rumours of West Ham's Declan Rice making his way across London to either Arsenal or Chelsea this summer (although Manchester United has also recently been mooted as another possible suitor).
This morning the transfer gurur Fabrizio Romano has been discussing the Rice saga in his Daily Briefing on CaughtOffside's substack newsletter, and he seems certain that the midfielder will be staying in his home town. He said: "Arsenal are looking for a midfielder and Declan Rice remains one of their top priorities. Rice has spoken glowingly about both Arteta and Arsenal. I am still told he prefers to stay in London, too, which both Arsenal and Chelsea can use to their advantage.
"West Ham are resigned to losing Rice. But now they are practically safe after beating Manchester United, the Hammers can be a bit more bullish. Relegation would have made it tricky to hold out for a £100m+ price."
But many Arsenal are thinking that the chances of Arsenal entering a bidding war with Chelsea at those prices are living in cloud cuckoo land, and so Romano also discusses the other midfielders that the Gunners have in their sights in case the Rice deal fails to come to pass. He continues: "Arsenal also haven't ruled out coming back in for Moises Caicedo and are aware of the Mason Mount situation. Real Sociedad's Martin Zubimendi is another name linked. Arsenal have sent scouts to watch him, and the interest is genuine, but to my knowledge a deal isn't quite as advanced as perhaps has been suggested in Spain at this point."
Personally, I would prefer that Arteta goes back for Caicedo, especially as Edu and Arteta have already done their thorough research on the Brighton man and believe he will fit perfectly into Arteta's philosophy and skillset, but I also think Mount has enormous potential and will likely to be massively improved at the Emirates.
Zubimendi is obviously very skilful, but without a proven track record in the EPL it may be a risk on him settling in to England quickly to be pushed straight into the first team.
Which of those three Rice alternatives would you prefer Arsenal went for?
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