West Ham United coach Kevin Nolan has compared Arsenal target Declan Rice to Liverpool icon Steven Gerrard.
The north Londoners' priority for the summer transfer window is recruiting the England international, football.london understands. Gunners boss Mikel Arteta is keen to bolster his midfield options ahead of the 2023/24 campaign and the Spaniard has identified Rice as the perfect man to help close the gap on Premier League champions Manchester City.
Recent reports have claimed that a deal to bring the 24 year-old to the Emirates Stadium could cost upwards of £100million, a deal that would smash Arsenal's club-record transfer fee, which currently stands at the £72m they paid for Nicolas Pepe back in the summer of 2019. It remains to be seen whether or not Arteta wants to deploy Rice as a defensive no.6 or further forward as a box-to-box-midfielder.
Now, Nolan may have inadvertently told the Gunners manager that Rice is better further forward, likening him to Reds legend Gerrard. “Dec has given everything to the club and he’s been absolutely phenomenal - he’s been our best player for the last three seasons by a country mile," the east Londoners' first-team coach told talkSPORT when asked about the Hammers captain.
“I feel like everyone at the club sort of knows it’s coming to an end, but do we want it to? Do I want it to? Not a chance, not in a million years.
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“Knowing the kid, knowing his family and everybody around him, he loves West Ham, but hand on heart he’s got to go and play in the Champions League week-in week-out. I don't want to lose him, I would never want to lose him because of the way he drives everything in training everyday - I would never say this lightly, but he is the closest thing I’ve seen to Steven Gerrard on a football pitch.
"You (Danny Murphy) played with him , I didn't have the opportunity, but Dec's attributes, his key attributes and I feel that there's still loads to unravel. Now I'm not saying he is Gerrard, before the Liverpool fans start having it with me, but I'm just saying with the way he can just glide past players.
"The way one minute he's there, the next minute he's gone, the way he can play a defensive role, the way he can then go and move into an attacking role, and we haven't seen that attack mind of him yet."
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