West Ham United striker Michail Antonio has made a truly bizarre claim about Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice.
Declan Rice left West Ham to join Arsenal in the summer for around £105 million, and Michail Antonio has a rather unique take on that fee.
Former Aston Villa striker turned talkSPORT pundit Gabby Agbonlahor absolutely slaughtered the 33-year-old earlier this season for being so outspoken on his podcast, and I have to say I agree with him.
Rice, 25, has been exceptional for Arsenal this season, and he has been a real driving force behind their Premier League title challenge.
The powerful England international has gone from strength to strength over the past five or six years, and despite the way he left West Ham, it’s very hard not to respect him as a player.
Aside from Rodri, is there a better ‘number 6’ in the Premier League or even world football? I honestly don’t think there is.
Antonio was speaking on the Footballer’s Football podcast when he made a big claim about Arsenal midfielder Rice.
Antonio suggested that the Gunners would struggle to make a profit if 25-year-old moved on to Real Madrid:
“Think about it, what would Real Madrid pay for Haaland? That one was luck, they got him for £60m, and he’ll go for about £120m. But let’s talk about someone like Dec. Dec is 25, let’s say he wanted to go to Real Madrid, Arsenal have already paid £105. Hojlund, how much did United pay for him? £70m? The maximum they would get now is £80, 90 100m. I don’t understand top six clubs doing it, they are already paying premium prices, anyone selling to them want the most and that’s what they’re going to do.”
That really is baffling logic from Antonio, and the thing he’s missing here is that if Madrid wanted to sign Dec, it would be because he has reached world-class levels with Arsenal.
The former Hammer is under contract at the Emirates until the summer of 2028, and Arsenal have the option to extend that deal by a further 12 months, so they’ll be under no pressure whatsoever to sell him if another club did come knocking.
I hate to say it but Michail Antonio has made himself look a bit silly here with his comments on Declan Rice, and it’s yet another case of him coming out with utter rubbish on his podcast.
I don’t agree with the fact that he’s doing a weekly podcast whilst still being contracted to West Ham – it’s the sort of thing he should do when he hangs up his boots in my opinion.
I can guarantee you now that Arsenal will not be selling Declan Rice for a loss over the next three or four years or so.
Leave a Reply