Declan Rice is believed to be leaning towards a move to Arsenal.
Rice, 24, is one of the most sought after midfielders in Europe and has expressed an interest to play in the Champions League in the near future. The West Ham captain will not do that at his current club next season, as David Moyes' side are battling relegation.
Rice will not leave the Hammers until summer, with Arsenal and Chelsea leading the race to sign him. The England international was released by the Blues - his boyhood club - at 14, but he is reportedly interested in joining the Gunners to play under Mikel Arteta.
As reported by The Guardian, Arteta is a huge fan of Rice and the feeling is mutual. The Arsenal boss has drawn up plans for where Rice will play in his team, as he is expected to challenge Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey for a spot in central midfield.
While both Xhaka, 30, and Partey, 29, are senior players at the Emirates, their advancing years is a concern for Arteta and his young team. It's also Arsenal's weakest department - in terms of depth - and fans would be concerned if either of them got injured. Arsenal's other midfield options are Fabio Vieira, Albert Sambi Lokonga and Mohamed Elneny.
Chelsea, meanwhile, have a lot of central midfielders on their books. When all fit, Graham Potter has Jorginho, N'Golo Kante, Mateo Kovacic, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Denis Zakaria (currently on loan), Conor Gallagher and Carney Chukwuemeka to choose from.
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Rice will have a better chance of nailing down a position at Arsenal than Chelsea. Furthermore, the Blues may not be able to offer Rice Champions League football. They are 10th in the Premier League, 10 points behind Manchester United in fourth.
Chelsea's may have to win this season's Champions League to qualify for next term's tournament. Arsenal are almost certain to qualify via a more conventional route, as they are 14 points ahead of bitter rivals Tottenham in fifth with two games in hand.
Perhaps the one big difference between Arsenal and Chelsea is the latter's ability to blow their rivals out of the water, financially speaking. The Gunners recently tried to sign Mykhaylo Mudryk from Shakhtar Donetsk but lost that transfer race to the Blues.
Chelsea made a better bid to Shakhtar and offered better wages to Mudryk. They are the biggest spenders in Europe since Todd Boehly's consortium completed a takeover of the club last summer. That is important because West Ham want a lot of money for Rice.
Moyes said last February: "You’ll need humongous money to get close. I said in the summer that I thought Declan Rice was £100m. That was the sales, that was cheap, that was your chance to get Declan Rice cheap... he's probably the best midfield player in Europe."
It is believed the Hammers still want at more than £100m for Rice but could settle for around £80m. As we saw in the case of Mudryk, however, Arsenal are not willing to pay over the odds. Chelsea are - and that could prove telling come the summer.
Manchester United are also expected to join the race for Rice. The midfielder has 18 months left on his contract, but West Ham can automatically extend the deal by a further 12 months.
Rice was asked whether he wants to play Champions League football during the recent World Cup in Qatar. He replied: "One hundred per cent I want to play in the Champions League. For the last two or three years I’ve been saying that.
"I’ve been playing consistently well for my club and I feel like I really want to keep pushing. I see my friends here who are playing Champions League and for big trophies. You only get one career and at the end you want to look back at what you’ve won and the biggest games you’ve played in."
