Liverpool are set to rival Arsenal in the race to sign West Ham United captain Declan Rice this summer.
That’s according to Italian journalist Rudy Galetti. Speaking to Give Me Sport, Galetti claimed that Liverpool are ‘really interested’ in bringing the England international to Anfield.
“It’s too early to talk about negotiation between clubs because West Ham don’t want to discuss about Rice with any clubs until June,” began the journalist.
“But for sure, Arsenal will be one that will follow the player with great attention during the next transfer window. And in that sense, we also need to pay attention to Liverpool, who are really interested in him.”
Liverpool crying out for Rice
That Liverpool would be interested in signing Rice would make a whole lot of sense. The Reds are absolutely crying out for a player in his mould right now.
Perhaps seen as a like-for-like successor for Fabinho in the past, he’s grown into a superb box-to-box midfielder.
He can run, he can tackle, he can pass, he can even score goals. At this point in time, Liverpool have players who have all of those attributes separately, but none who possess the full package. Rice does
If they’re in need of an endorsement for the 24-year-old, they need not look very far either.
Steven Gerrard was the best example of an all-round midfield player you could possibly get. There haven’t been many better than him in Premier League history, and he’s probably the last Liverpool midfielder who could do a bit of everything.
And as it turns out, Stevie G is a big fan of Rice. Speaking via Football London after a loss against West Ham last March, the then Aston Villa boss admitted he was ‘impressed’ with the former Chelsea youth player.
“The game plan from the beginning was to try and get around their two midfielders to stop them switching the play and dictating a lot of what West Ham were trying to do. Second half was the same advice and Ollie was closer to [Rice]. That’s what we tried to do. Listen, [Rice] put in a strong performance and I was impressed by him,” Gerrard said.
There you have it. So, there should only really be one sticking point for Liverpool here, and it’s a familiar one. Rice’s manager at West Ham – David Moyes, has recently claimed that his player will break the British transfer record once he leaves the London Stadium. Putting him at over £100m, that isn’t an easy figure to reach for the Reds. One to keep an eye on though, he could be worth it.