Woods ruins West Ham fan with brutal reply over Rice to Arsenal transfer

13 June 2023 , 23:00

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Arsenal fan and talkSPORT presenter Laura Woods

Arsenal fan and talkSPORT presenter Laura Woods delivered a brutal response to a West Ham supporter who claimed Declan Rice should not consider a move to the Emirates.

Rice is one of Mikel Arteta's top targets this summer and the West Ham captain is set to leave the club after helping them win the Europa Conference League, their first European trophy since 1965.

Following the triumph, West Ham's chairman David Sullivan confirmed Rice has likely played his final game for the club. "I think it has to be [his last West Ham game]. We promised him he could go," Sullivan admitted.

"He set his heart on going. You can't ask for a man who has committed more to us this season. In due course, he has to get on and we have to get a replacement - or several replacements.

"It's not something we want to happen. We offered him £200,000-a-week 18 months ago. He turned it down. It's cost him £10million to stay at West Ham in that time [in lost wages]. And he wants to go. You can't keep a player who doesn't want to be there."

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Bayern Munich were also interested in signing Rice, but Mirror Football understands he was never seriously interested in a move to Germany and Arsenal are his first choice, with Arteta viewing him as a successor for Granit Xhaka.

West Ham captain Declan Rice has been heavily linked with a move to Arsenal (Getty Images)

However, disgruntled West Ham fan Phil believes Rice can do better than Arsenal, claiming they will not "get anywhere close to winning the league" anytime soon after finishing second last season. "I think I'm listening to talkARSENAL now, why don't you have some West Ham people on?" he said after calling in to speak with Woods and Arsenal legend Ray Parlour on talkSPORT.

"You can record this and play it back in five years' time, there's no chance that Arsenal will get anywhere close to winning the league, the Champions League; they probably won't even win an FA Cup or a League Cup."

Woods then quickly reminded him that, despite West Ham's success in Europe, they were in a relegation scrap for most of the season. "Didn't they get close to winning the league this year?" she responded. "Didn't they get closer than anybody apart from the team who won the league? Didn't they get a lot closer than you did? You were closer to relegation, weren't you Phil?"

Matthew Cooper