ARSENAL are facing a race against time to complete the signing of £100million Declan Rice before they fly to the USA on Sunday.
A club record deal for the 24-year-old England star is going right down to the wire as frustrated West Ham wait for the Gunners board to sign off the final paperwork.
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Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta is eager to get Rice on board when his squad takes off for their 11-day pre-season trip to Washington, New Jersey and Los Angeles.
But last season’s Premier League runners-up now have little more than 24 hours to get the deal over the line before they head to the airport.
And until all of West Ham’s conditions are met, Rice will be waiting by his phone for the green light to make the move.
The West Ham captain is now back in England after spending last week in Portugal working on his fitness.
He has been excused from the Hammers’ pre-season trip to Australia after his extended season playing for England in their Euro qualifiers in June.
And bewildered boss David Moyes admits he has no idea if and when Rice will officially leave the club.
The £100million fee plus £5million in potential add-ons was agreed between the two clubs more than a week and Rice has already undergone his Arsenal medical.
But with the haggling still going on, there is now the possibility that he could be forced to postpone his travel plans and fly out on his own later next week.
That was an issue for Arsenal last season, when Oleksandr Zinchenko was unable to participate in their pre-season tour of America while negotiations over his £30million move from Manchester City dragged on.
Arteta, who is eager to avoid a repeat of that situation, wants to get Rice integrated into his squad as quickly as possible and is pushing the club to finalise the deal tomorrow.
At least he was officially able to welcome Jurrien Timber into his squad when the 22-year-old Dutch international completed his £34.5million move from Ajax.
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