West Ham chairman confirms Rice wants to leave amid Bayern links
Bayern Munich target Declan Rice wants to leave West Ham this summer, club chairman David Sullivan has confirmed.
West Ham chairman David Sullivan has confirmed that Bayern Munich target Declan Rice wants to leave the club this summer.
Asked if yesterday's 2-1 Conference League final win over Fiorentina was Rice's last in a West Ham shirt, Sullivan admitted to talkSPORT:
"I think it has to be. We promised him he could go. He set his heart on going. You can't ask for a man who has committed more to us this season.
"In due course, he has to get on and we have to get a replacement - or several replacements.
"It's not something we want to happen. We offered him £200,000-a-week 18 months ago. He turned it down.
"It's cost him £10million to stay at West Ham in that time (in lost wages). And he wants to go.
"You can't keep a player who doesn't want to be there."
Sullivan added that West Ham have yet to receive any bids for Rice, but he expects the offers to start coming in now that the Hammers have played the last game of their 2022/23 season.
"I think the offers will start to come today," he said.
“There are three or four clubs who have shown interest, but out of respect to West Ham, while we’re still playing, you don’t make offers for players.
“That’s not the way decent clubs do things.”
According to talkSPORT, Arsenal are ahead of Bayern Munich and Manchester United in the race to sign the midfielder.