West Ham have made an ambitious offer to secure Declan Rice’s future, offering the England midfielder a staggering eight-year contract to remain at the London Stadium.
Rice has turned down previous attempts to secure him to a new contract with the 23-year-old keen to play Champions League football.
In one last desperate roll of the dice, the Hammers have thrown a record-breaking contract in Rice’s direction in a bold bid to keep him at the club.
Manchester United and Chelsea have both been linked with a summer move for Rice, though West Ham have remained insistent that the star – who has three years remaining on his current contract – is not for sale.
According to talkSPORT, West Ham have now made an audacious attempt to persuade Rice to remain with the club, offering the academy product an eight-year deal that would more than triple his current salary to a figure of around ยฃ200,000-a-week.
๐๐ฅ๐๐๐๐๐ก๐: West Ham have offered Declan Rice an ๐๐๐๐๐ฉ-๐ฎ๐๐๐ง contract that would put him on ยฃ200k-a-week.
– talkSPORT sources understand
๐ฒ Listen โ https://t.co/VJgUHnqdM1 pic.twitter.com/R83uB2onIe
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) May 11, 2022
That deal would rise with inflation across the course of his deal, though the Express are reporting that Rice has shown no indication he is willing to sign and his representatives believe he could command a more lucrative deal elsewhere.
David Moyes has said it would take a ‘minimum’ of a British transfer record ยฃ150m for sign Rice, though has continued to insist the player is not for sale this summer.
There have been suggestions that West Ham will reluctantly accept a sale in 2023 should the midfielder not sign a new deal, at which point he will have two seasons remaining on his contract and his value remains high.
It seems incredibly unlikely that Rice will put pen to paper on such a deal that would leave him powerless to move, having already expressed his ambition to compete in the Champions League and for major trophies, a platform the Hammers are unable to provide at present despite recent progress.
An almost unprecedented eight-year deal on club-record wages seems the equivalent of West Ham throwing the kitchen sink at it in their bid to keep Rice out of the clutches of Premier League rivals.
