Graeme Souness has warned Arsenal that even if they manage to sign Declan Rice, the Gunners won't be getting a "top, top midfielder."
West Ham captain Rice has been the subject of two transfer bids from Arsenal, the second being worth a total of £90million. Aiming to get the maximum amount for their midfield general, West Ham have rejected both offers, despite chairman David Sullivan recently confirming that Rice, 24, will be allowed to leave for the right price this summer.
The Gunners have already shown that they're willing to break their own transfer record to win the race for the England international, who's also a target for Manchester United and local rivals City. Souness, though, isn't convinced that Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta should be so intent on signing him.
"If you're looking for a top, top midfield player, I don't believe he has enough cute passing in him to be that," the Liverpool legend told talkSPORT. "I think he'd be a really good guy, he'd be great to work with, extremely athletic, he senses danger so he's got that part of a central midfield player's game, he's got that.
"He can get himself into positions where the guys he is playing against that want to find the striker or make a cute pass, he knows that and not everyone can get that. So he's got that instinctively, but what he doesn't have is cute and clever passes when he gets into the last third.
"I think he's a little bit predictable when he gets on the ball personally. He'd make Arsenal better. Would he personally get better? Not sure."
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Comparing Rice to his international team-mate, James Maddison, Souness added: "Maddison has got that final ball. I'm not sure if that's something he can develop. I think that's something you've got or you've not got, there's no doubt he would be an asset to whoever takes him, and I bet he's a great boy to work with.
"This is not a criticism, we're talking about someone worth £100m. But for me, the top midfield players have what he has, and have the cuteness of play further up the field, and they’ll score goals and they create chances. His record is 204 games, 10 goals, 10 assists."
£100m might not even be enough to prise Rice away from West Ham, with boss David Moyes saying in February that any deal for the 24-year-old would break the current British transfer record. That was set by Chelsea six months ago when they paid £107m to sign Argentine midfielder Enzo Fernandez from Benfica.
"There's a lot of talk about it and when you see what's going about for the prices, I think Dec will be blowing that out of the water," Moyes declared. "That's for sure when it comes around."
