West Ham have rejected Arsenal’s second bid worth £90 million for the club’s captain, Declan Rice.

The fee, which would have been a club-record for Arsenal, was understood to be £75 million guaranteed plus £15 million in add-ons, surpassing the £72 million paid to Lille for Nicolas Pepe in 2019.

Arsenal proposed to pay the initial fee over four years and the add-ons, if successfully met, over five years.

That falls some way short of West Ham’s £120 million valuation though the East London club are open to sell for less if a player is included in the deal.

The Gunners had initially offered £80 million plus add-ons – which would have been paid in slow instalments with a lot of tough contingencies attached to it.

Manchester City and Manchester United are also interested in the 24-year-old midfielder.

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Rice, who replaced Mark Noble as the Hammers’ skipper before the start of the just concluded season, has spent his entire professional career with the East London side.

Arsenal want to be ambitious in this window and continue to back manager Mikel Arteta, with any move for Rice likely breaking the club’s transfer record.

They also retain an interest in Brighton midfielder Moises Caicedo – among others – and are keeping an eye on his situation having had two bids rejected in the January transfer window and ultimately ended up signing Jorginho from London rivals, Chelsea.

But Mikel Arteta, who mostly relied on Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka, and Martin Odegaard as his midfielders last season, remains keen to strengthen in that area of the field.

Meanwhile, Arsenal have made a fresh verbal offer for Chelsea forward, Kai Havertz.

The bid for the Germany international is reportedly worth £60 million after having their initial proposal turned down last week.

Arsenal have offered to pay Chelsea £55 million upfront with £5 million in add-ons.

Chelsea signed Havertz, who has two years left on his contract, from Bayer Leverkusen in 2020 in a deal worth £75 million.

Arsenal are also in talks with Ajax over the signing of defender Jurrien Timber.

Discussions have been described as “very positive” and there appears to be a willingness from all parties to get a deal done.

Timber has two years left on his contract and is valued at around €50 million – some reports suggest one bid has already been rejected.

Arsenal are working internally on a valuation and payment structure.

The Star