Tony Cascarino has urged Declan Rice to look upon Liverpool duo Virgil van Dijk and Alisson as prime examples of how to decide his next club.
The England international has been tipped to take the next step in his career this summer by leaving his beloved West Ham, who he captained to Europa Conference League success last season - in search of more major honours.
Arsenal were in prime position to land the midfielder, however their first bids of £75 million and £90 million were rejected as the Hammers look to hold out for at least £100 million. Manchester City have now entered the fray, and Rice would appear to be at the centre of a battle between last season's Premier League top two.
Liverpool have not been directly linked to Rice this summer, however former Chelsea striker Cascarino has pointed out similarities in the 24-year-old's dilemma to the impact van Dijk and Alisson had upon signing for Liverpool. It is therefore his belief that the example the duo set should sway Rice to make the short switch across the capital to the Gunners, as opposed to linking up with treble-winners Man City.
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Speaking to TalkSport, Cascarino said: "If you look at Arsenal, since Mikel Arteta came in December 2019, that season they got 56 points. He hadn’t played a part earlier in the season, the next season they got 61, the next season they got 69 and last year they got 84, so there’s a real upward curve at Arsenal.
"Declan Rice would make the impact that Alisson and van Dijk made at Liverpool by coming."
The Republic of Ireland international is of course referring back to 2018, the year the Reds made their marquee signings for a combined £142 million using the cash injection brought upon by the sale of Philippe Coutinho. The Dutch centre half signed prior to that year's Champions League Final loss to Real Madrid in Kiev whilst Alisson signed afterwards, but both would go on to play integral parts in winning every major trophy since.
"Man City is an easy choice as they could easily win the double next year and maybe more,” he added. "That’s the thing you’ve got to really consider, but how big a part do you really play in that if you go to Manchester City?
"Because it’s not impossible that they could spend £100m and he could be a bit-part player at Man City. Some people might laugh at that, well that’s exactly the first season of Jack Grealish. I do think there is a very high possibility that he won’t play as much football as he would like."
Whichever club Rice ends up choosing, it would provide Liverpool with an additional challenge to climb back into the top four next season.
