I’m not too worried just yet. City have the money but have a tendency to walk away when their transfer targets are over priced and I’m guessing West Ham will play hard ball a little bit, which will only chase away buyers when you are demanding 100m for a player on their last year of contract.

I expect City to be as stingy with their offer as we were, and then back out after West Ham demand even more money.

This will be a massive egg on the face of our recruitment team if they can’t land Rice. After what happened with Mudryk, I hope they have learned their lesson.