The Gunners are being tipped to announce the signing of Rice in the coming days after agreeing to pay over £100m for the England man.
Rice will follow Kai Havertz to the club, while Jurrien Timber is also expected to complete a deal as well.
However, it looks like Arsenal’s spending won’t quite be done just there either.
According to TeamTalk, which cites The Sun’s transfer tracker, Arsenal are keen on West Ham full-back Ben Johnson.
Johnson, 23, has been a key player for the Hammers and has given David Moyes a solid right side alongside Vladimir Coufal.
Arsenal’s links to Johnson will come as a surprise. The decision to bring in Timber is for that right-back slot, so the addition of Johnson at the same time would seem a tad confusing.
Surely not
It’s not that Ben Johnson isn’t a good player or that he wouldn’t fit in well with Arsenal. But really, if they do sign Timber as we expect, then he just isn’t going to be playing.
Johnson – lauded as ‘absolutely brilliant’ – has done well with West Ham and he’d be better off staying there. Of course, the lack of starts – less than 10 last season – will bother the Hammers ace.
But he’s not going to build on that at Arsenal and it would be an odd move by the Gunners to raid West Ham again.
Johnson, of course, would probably jump at the chance of playing for a title contender. But in reality, he’d just be a squad player and nothing more.
Arsenal are aiming higher than Johnson right now and while he’d add to the squad and is a good age, the Gunners probably have other priorities right now.
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