Eni Aluko hits back at critics of Declan Rice theory as Man City clear path for Arsenal

The former England, Chelsea and Juventus striker gave an interesting theory on bidding for the West Ham captain during Tuesday's talkSPORT Breakfast Show.

Having worked as a sporting director at Aston Villa women's before joining Angel City FC in Los Angeles, Aluko revealed she would sometimes ask other clubs to make an offer for one of their transfer targets to force her owners into action.

She theorised that was the case with Arsenal and Man City, with the Gunners making two bids for Rice before City came in with a £90million offer.

"I think there's a lot of cat and mouse going on here," she explained. "As a sporting director I used to do this a lot.

"I used to call up a club, a big club, and say, 'right can you put a bid in' and that would basically force my owner to put a higher bid in.

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"I don't think Manchester City actually want to sign Declan Rice, I think what's going on is Arteta has picked up the phone to Pep [Guardiola] and said 'listen, Arsenal are going to do the incremental bid approach, if you put a higher bid in, that will push my owner'."

Well now it has emerged that after bidding £10m less than Arsenal, City have pulled out of the running for Rice, paving the way for a third £105m record bid from the Gunners.

Aluko's name quickly began trending on Twitter, with one fan writing: "Humble apologies for doubting Eni Aluko. She was cooking."

Another added: "Let your apologies to Eni Aluko be as loud as your disrespect."

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While a third wrote: "Eni Aluko was a football director of a professional club and was telling the world how the game is played upstairs and men are calling her stupid cos they've got a Twitter account."

Aluko, meanwhile, responded on Instagram writing: "Who knew."

She then added: "I guess the 'token' 'clueless 'braindead' pundit knew exactly what she was talking about on this one. Go figure. Thank you @talkSPORT."