Man City chief opens up on failed Declan Rice bid

City decided against meeting West Ham’s demands for the highly-rated midfielder.

Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano has defended the club’s decision to pull out of the transfer race for Declan Rice.

The Citizens entered direct negotiations with West Ham over a move for Rice. Earlier this week, it even seemed that City were edging out Arsenal in the race.

The Premier League champions were open to paying £90 million for Rice. However, West Ham rejected the offer, expecting a more lucrative bid from Arsenal. Their prediction was correct as the Gunners returned with a record-breaking offer worth £105m.

Arsenal are now on the verge of completing Rice’s transfer, but that won’t tempt City to change their transfer policy.

“If you look at what we did at the start of this project, there was a need for a lot of changes and investment – but not anymore,” Soriano said at the announcement of a new sponsorship deal with cryptocurrency giants OKX.

“If you look at what we have done in the last five years, our level of investment in new players is well thought out.

“We are not the top net-spenders of last year or the last three or five years. We have a platform where we know what to do and we can do it with time and intelligence. When we don’t like a deal, we walk away and we don’t panic.”