West Ham United may have knocked back Arsenal's first bid for Declan Rice, rumoured to be in the region of £80m with add-ons, but it is becoming increasingly likely the central midfielder will not be at the London Stadium next year.
Losing Rice will be a major blow for West Ham given the England international's qualities on the field, including what he brings in terms of leadership.
The good news for the Europa Conference League winners is they have time on their side to bring in new players, and potentially a lot of cash to help strengthen in other areas.
While not strictly a like-for-like replacement, The Telegraph reported last week that West Ham were leading the race to sign Harvey Barnes from Leicester City following the Foxes' relegation to the Championship.
Should Rice's departure be confirmed in the coming days, Leicester could do with getting a deal over the line for Barnes – supposedly valued at £40m by Leicester – to help keep the feelgood factor around the club alive.
What can Harvey Barnes bring to West Ham United?
Barnes' best efforts were not enough to keep Leicester in the Premier League, with his team-high 13 goals and one assist proving to be in vain. With 0.43 goals per 90 minutes last season, as per FBref, the Englishman was on par with Ollie Watkins and Cody Gakpo.
In short, then, Barnes can add some goals to a West Ham side that managed just 41 of them last season across their 38 matches – a worse tally than relegated pair Leicester (49) and Leeds United (45).
As pointed out by WhoScored owner Martin Laurence, Barnes "combines pace and intelligent movement", while also being a "decent finisher". Indeed, that is backed up by his combined goals and assists stats across the past four seasons: 14, 13, 16 and 13 from 2019-20 through to 2022-23.
It is quite apparent that Barnes can bring something to United that they otherwise lack. The 25-year-old found the target from 47.2% of his shots last season – a huge increase on West Ham's best-performing attacking player in that area, with Said Benrahma doing so 33.3% of the time.
Barnes also averaged 24.4 carries per 90 minutes last time out. To put that in perspective, Jarrod Bowen – who could be under threat by Barnes' arrival – averaged 20.4.
As Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp put it two years ago: "Barnes is probably one of the biggest talents. I'm not sure if he is respected or appreciated as much as he should be. He is an unbelievable player."
The world is now more aware of Barnes' talents, as reflected by his fairly sizable valuation, but if West Ham mean business this summer then they must soften the Rice blow by bringing in a new exciting homegrown asset; that of Barnes.
