Report reveals reason Liverpool abandoned record move for Arsenal player before plans were ruined
Liverpool decided not to pursue new Arsenal signing Declan Rice for fear that it would anger their former priority summer transfer target Jude Bellingham.
Rice finally completed his protracted move from West Ham to Arsenal on Saturday, with both clubs confirming the record transfer for a British player – although the Hammers pointedly ignored the Gunners in their announcement.
It marks a pivotal signing for Arsenal, a club-record deal months in the making who had attracted intense interest from numerous other clubs.
Manchester City made a bid worth £90m for the England international, while Man Utd, Bayern Munich and Chelsea were all linked at various points throughout the summer.
As Rice explained, however, his heart was set on “the challenge of getting Arsenal back to where they belong”.
“In football, amazing opportunities arise,” he told the Gunners’ official website. “Big clubs, like Arsenal, have come for me and it’s really hard to turn down.
“You only ever get one career and I really believe in what Mikel is building here and the squad he’s building. I’m really looking forward to the future with Arsenal.”
Liverpool perhaps knew they had no chance when they decided against making a move of their own for Rice during their focused summer midfield rebuild.
The Reds have signed Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai for £95m so far and had hoped that would represent the sum total of their restructuring, but Saudi interest in both Jordan Henderson and Fabinho has set those plans back somewhat.
Jurgen Klopp is quite selfishly deciding to ruin Henderson’s lifelong dream of torching his reputation for £700,000 a week by suggesting that Liverpool receive a fee for their captain.
Fabinho, meanwhile, has been left out of the club’s travelling party for the pre-season training camp in Germany after Saudi champions Al-Ittihad made a £40m offer for the Brazilian.
How Liverpool might wish they had been able to sign Rice and avoid all the hassle.
But according to The Athletic that was never an option, as the Reds ‘chose to steer clear of even meeting Rice’s camp’ when the former West Ham captain was being touted across the continent.
‘They were never truly in the running,’ it is added, ‘and a source said that was also with Jude Bellingham in mind, as they were in the mix for his signature at the time and didn’t want his camp to be irked.’
Liverpool, of course, went on to abandon that move due to spiralling costs, with Bellingham instead joining Real Madrid for an initial £88.5m which could rise into nine figures.
Man Utd are also mentioned in the report as having considered Rice.
‘Manchester United were credited with an interest in him last summer but they were preoccupied with signing Real Madrid’s Casemiro and Barcelona’s Frenkie de Jong,’ it says.
‘This summer there was weight to reports that United could offer cash-plus-players for Rice, with Scott McTominay, Harry Maguire and Anthony Elanga all players who could have been interesting to Moyes as makeweights.’
