‘Man City don’t actually want to sign Declan Rice’ - Ex-England star reveals interesting theory over Cityzens’ bids for Arsenal top target

• Rice eyed by City and Arsenal
• Aluko claims two clubs in cahoots
• Believes Rice will move to Gunners

WHAT HAPPENED? Aluko has made the bizarre claim on TalkSPORT, insisting that she used to use a tactic of convincing a bigger club to bid for a player to force her owner to make a higher offer when sporting director at Angel City and Aston Villa, and believes that Pep Guardiola and City are merely doing Arsenal a favour. It is made all the stranger by the fact that the two clubs contested the title race last season.

WHAT THEY SAID: Aluko, a former England international with 102 caps, 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."

THE BIGGER PICTURE: City have tabled a formal bid for Rice worth £90 million ($114.7m), which was rejected, while Arsenal have also seen two bids knocked back by West Ham. It remains to be seen if the treble winners will return with a higher offer, but they have kicked off negotiations for the England international.

IN THREE PHOTOS:

WHAT NEXT? The Rice saga is likely to run and run as the summer transfer window rumbles on.