Former Arsenal, Liverpool and Leeds United winger urges Declan Rice to snub Man City and make Gunners move

The race to sign the England star has become one of the stories of the summer transfer window and there was a further twist on Tuesday night when The Athletic’s David Ornstein revealed Arsenal had submitted a club record bid of an initial £100million, with a further £5million coming in performance related add-ons.

That came just hours after West Ham rejected an offer from City that would have been worth £90m as the Hammers remained adamant they wanted a deal that meets their £120m valuation on their club captain. There have been suggestions West Ham will accept a bid of £100m and a player in exchange - but that is not believed to have formed part of the Gunners initial offer.

Rice’s future has been the subject of intense speculation in recent months but the Hammers skipper gave little away when he was quizzed on his next move in the aftermath of his side’s Europa Conference League Final win against Serie A club Fiorentina.

He told BT Sport: “At the moment, there is obviously a lot of speculation about my future. Obviously, there is interest from other clubs. That is out there but ultimately I still have two years left on my contract at West Ham. I love this club and I love playing for this club.”

Former Liverpool and Stoke City winger Pennant, who began his Premier League career at Arsenal in 1999, has insisted Rice would be ‘better off’ joining the Gunners and becoming an important player, rather than joining City’s star-studded squad.

He told talkSPORT: “As a player, you want to clean up and win as much as you can but at the same time you want to be a big part of that. Man City, they’ve got Rodri, and how important is he? I don’t think he (Rice) will be taking that spot. So you look at Arsenal, runners-up in the Premier League, playing Champions League, that’s a great and attractive place and side to be in.

“I think it would be better off going to Arsenal because he would be their main man. At Man City, you’ve got so many stars. You’ve got Rodri, you’ve got Grealish, you’ve got Haaland. If he goes to Arsenal, there’ll be so much noise around the signing, he’d be one of the main, main man and an important one, a starter for every single game.”