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Eniola Aluko has left football fans baffled after sharing a theory about Declan Rice’s potential move to Arsenal, suggesting that the north London club asked Manchester City to put in a bid for the player.
Arsenal have been chasing Rice over recent weeks and had an offer of £75 million plus £15 million in add-ons rejected.
It’s also emerged that Man City have entered the race and had a £90 million bid rejected too, reportedly falling short of West Ham’s £100 million valuation for the player.
Now, former England international Aluko has claimed that it could be a case of Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta calling up his former colleague Pep Guardiola and getting him to place a bid without really being interested in Rice.
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Aluko has been sporting director for Aston Villa Women and Angel City in the US, and she said that it’s a tactic she had used in the past - but fans on social media aren't at all convinced.
Aluko said: “There’s a lot of cat and mouse here and as a sporting director, I used to do this a lot.
“I used to call up a club and say 'right, can you put a bid in' and that would get my owner to basically put a higher bid in. It’s a bit like an auction.
“I don’t think that Manchester City actually want to sign Declan Rice. I think what is going on here is that Arteta has picked up the phone to Pep [Guardiola] and said ‘Arsenal are going to do the incremental bid approach, if you put a bid in, then that will push my owner’.
“I think there’s a bit of that going on here.”
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Aluko went on to say: “I don’t know why Arsenal are doing this incremental approach but it says to me, Man City coming in later on, it feels like that it is going to help Arsenal.
“The fans are going to get on it now and say ‘hold on a second, if you let Declan Rice go to Man City when he was our No.1 target, then that says a lot about Arsenal.
“So I think there is a bit of that going on. I used to do it all the time and it used to work.”
The opinion didn’t go down well with fans on social media, with users criticising the take.
“What a bizarre take,” one wrote.
Another said: “This might be the worst take I’ve ever heard.”
One more commented: “Worst opinion and take I've seen on here for a while. Is she on a wind up or is this genuine?”
Another added: “Pep just bidding £90m to help a mate is a proper weird take.”
Former striker Aluko played 102 times for England, scoring 33 goals. She played for Chelsea, Atlanta Beat, Chelsea and Juventus during her club career.
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