Exclusive: Arsenal & Chelsea face huge Declan Rice transfer fee and more – Fabrizio Romano

caughtoffside

·6 February 2023

Exclusive: Arsenal & Chelsea face huge Declan Rice transfer fee and more – Fabrizio Romano

Happy Monday everyone and welcome to my latest Daily Briefing – enjoy! 🙂

Arsenal

OneFootball Videos

Arsenal and Chelsea have always been interested but let’s see if Manchester United or Man City will join the race.

Barcelona

Despite some speculation to the contrary, I’m not aware of Barcelona-Tottenham talks for Bryan Gil. He was hoping for Sevilla move because he wanted to go back there and be a regular starter, he wanted to play and at Barca there’s more competition, even more so than at Spurs probably.

To read the rest of the Daily Briefing and to GET 3 MONTHS FREE, subscribe now for daily transfer round-ups and exclusive columns from the biggest journalists in football

Get 90 day free trial

Bayern Munich

Bayern director Hasan Salihamidzic on paying €70m to sign Joao Cancelo permanently: “We’ve made clear to Joao that this fee is difficult for us to imagine. But if all sides absolutely want a solution, we can manage it. The most important thing is that Joao feels comfortable in Munich.”

Chelsea

West Ham always asked for big money for Declan Rice, it was £150m one year ago today. I think the price could now be around £90-100m, but it depends on many factors and it’s really too early to predict the final price tag. Chelsea are one of the suitors, but Arsenal are there too, and let’s see if Man Utd and City join the race.

A lot has been said about Mason Mount’s future again, particular his role in the team now that Chelsea have spent big money on the likes of Enzo Fernandez and Mykhaylo Mudryk. I’m told negotiations are still ongoing between Chelsea and Mount, so let’s see how the conversation will go in the next weeks and months. I think it would be fair to say that automatic starters don’t exist when the competition is that high, he knows he has to perform at top level to keep his place, but nothing has changed.

Understand Chelsea are currently not negotiating with Galatasaray to loan out David Datro Fofana until the end of the season. He’s expected to stay at Stamford Bridge.

Germany manager Hansi Flick was spotted at Stamford Bridge, so there’s inevitably been speculation about the Chelsea job. However, Flick has just committed to the Germany job until the Euros a few weeks ago and this is his full focus. I’m not aware of any conversation with Chelsea.

Crystal Palace

There’s no decision yet on Wilfried Zaha, and the situation remain open. Patrick Vieira wants him to stay but it’s up to the player, we will see what he will decide. For sure, the club are not yet in the process of deciding replacements… it’s still February, too early.

Galatasaray

Nicolo Zaniolo remains open to joining Galatasaray — as reported last night. The Italian midfielder wants the move while AS Roma and Gala keep negotiating on the formula of the deal. There will be another round of talks taking place today as Galatasaray are trying to find a solution.

Zaniolo himself has already given the green light to joining Galatasaray, personal terms have been agreed, so it now depends on the clubs.

Inter Milan

Inter CEO Beppe Marotta confirms: “Skriniar won’t be our captain anymore because we’ve to share the same clear values.”

Milan Skriniar already signed pre-contract as new Paris Saint-Germain player for the next season one week ago.

Manchester City

Pep Guardiola on potential Joao Cancelo’s return in June: “Now he’s at Bayern and we will see what happens next season. At the end of the season, we will talk many, many things with many, many players. So we will see.”

Nottingham Forest

Clean sheet on Premier League debut for Keylor Navas. Steve Cooper: “He deserves the credit for saving the points, but I also loved his composure in the game; his game-management and his decision-making.”

PSG

PSG director Luis Campos: “I’ve zero criticism for Neymar, trust me. I only have good things to say about him. He’s always on time. Always in a good mood. This Neymar, he’s an incredible Neymar.”

PSG director Luis Campos confirms: “We are in talks with Leo Messi as we want to extend his contract. I’d like to keep him in this project. We are talking now to achieve this goal and continue to have Messi with us.”

Tottenham

Yesterday we witnessed Harry Kane making history with the winning goal against Manchester City. 267 goals as Tottenham player, he is now the club’s all-time record goalscorer – a superb achievement.

I know everyone has an opinion on this, so here’s mine: Kane is an incredible player, on and off the pitch because all the players love him and respect him as a leader, goalscorer, teammate. This makes the difference. I’m sure he will try to destroy records again.

In terms of trophies, he really wants to win something with Tottenham, he’s been focusing on that for a long time and at times he’s come close and been unlucky. But trophies aside, using this lack of silverware to call Kane’s career “not good” wouldn’t be correct, he’s a fantastic striker, and he now deservedly has his place in the history books.