Newcastle United handed £30m boost as West Ham star set for medical with Premier League club

Rice has been one of the most sought after Premier League players so far this summer after West Ham confirmed the player would be leaving on the back of the Europa Conference League win last month. The 24-year-old midfielder previously rejected a £200,000-a-week contract with The Hammers and is now set to become the most expensive English player of all time, surpassing Manchester City’s Jack Grealish.

Arsenal beat off competition from Man City to land Rice while Newcastle United also had an interest in the England international.

In a world where the Magpies weren’t shackled by Financial Fair Play limitations, or a few seasons down the line, they may have pushed the deal further as Rice is a player hugely admired by head coach Eddie Howe and his recruitment team.

But the price-tag and wages were both well out of Newcastle’s current financial structure as they look to increase their revenue streams before parting ways with some of the fees mentioned.

Arsenal’s significant transfer spending under Mikel Arteta

Arsenal’s record signing could well have a knock-on impact on Newcastle’s transfer business as The Gunners look to adhere to Financial Fair Play guidelines themselves. Once Rice’s transfer goes through, Arsenal will have the largest negative net spend of any Premier League side over the last five seasons at £575million, comfortably ahead of second placed Manchester United with £479million.

Newcastle’s recent spending under new ownership and a lack of transfer sales has their negative net spend as the fifth highest in the Premier League over the last five seasons with £315million. Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea make up the top five with negative spends of £458million and £443million respectively.

With Arsenal ideally needing to recoup some transfer funds, they will be more inclined to sell some of their fringe players and get them off the wage bill. This is where Newcastle come in.

Declan Rice transfer to reignite Newcastle United’s Kieran Tierney pursuit

Out-of-favour Arsenal left-back Kieran Tierney has been targeted by Newcastle since last season as Howe looks to strengthen his defensive options.

Newcastle had been weighing up alternative full-back targets with Arsenal wanting in excess of £30million for the Scotland international. Southampton duo Tino Livramento and Kyle Walker-Peters have both been targeted by The Magpies but are better suited to playing at right-back while Tierney is natural on the left.

The 26-year-old made just six Premier League starts for Arsenal last season following the arrival of Oleksandr Zinchenko from Man City. Even in Zinchenko’s absence at the back end of the 2022-23 campaign, Tierney only started one of Arsenal’s final seven matches.

The Gunners paid £25million to Celtic to sign Tierney back in 2019 with the Scottish Premiership side understood to have a 15% sell-on clause.

But with Tierney looking to secure regular first-team football and Arsenal needing to generate funds, it opens the door for the player to leave this summer with negotiations set to take place.

Although Newcastle’s interest has cooled slightly over the past month, they still hold an interest in the player and will look to avoid a bidding war with Aston Villa also credited with an interest.