Man City chief breaks silence on Declan Rice decision after transfer refusal

Man City made a play to snap up Rice this summer as they tabled an offer worth up to £90 million.

But their proposal was rejected by the Hammers, who have since succumbed to Arsenal's pursuit.

However Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano has broken his silence on missing out on signing Declan Rice after pulling out of the deal to sign the West Ham United star.

Speaking at the announcement of a new sponsorship deal with cryptocurrency behemoths OKX, he said: "If you look at what we did at the start of this project, there was a need for a lot of changes and investment - but not anymore. If you look at what we have done in the last five years, our level of investment in new players is well thought out.

"We are not the top net-spenders of last year or the last three or five years," he continued. "We have a platform where we know what to do and we can do it with time and intelligence. When we don't like a deal, we walk away and we don't panic."

And Soriano continued by appearing to take a swipe at their rivals, adding: "How many coaches did we have in the last 10 years? Two - Manuel Pellegrini and Pep Guardiola. How many football directors? One - Txiki Begiristian.

"Part of the success is to be consistent and resilient and not panicking when we lose.

"I've seen at City when going to breakfast the morning after the games we have lost and it’s like a funeral and people are really p**sed off.

"That's when you have to show resilience but also intelligence to think 'today is not the day to make decisions'. This is part of the reason why we have been successful in the last decade."