In the last transfer window, Declan Rice was at the center of a transfer tug-of-war between Arsenal and Manchester City. Arsenal had expressed their interest in the midfielder well before the previous season ended, but they faced difficulties in reaching an agreement with West Ham for his signature.
Seizing the opportunity, Manchester City entered the picture and attempted to hijack the transfer of the former Chelsea youth player. However, their offer was swiftly rejected by West Ham.
Arsenal continued their pursuit, eventually submitting a substantial bid to secure the services of Declan Rice. The midfielder has proven to be an exceptional addition to the Gunners since his arrival.
Although Bayern Munich also expressed interest in signing Rice, a report from Mirror Football suggests that Rice had no inclination to make a move to Munich or Manchester, despite the appeal of working with Pep Guardiola. His preference had always been to join Arsenal, and he eventually achieved his wish when the clubs reached an agreement for his transfer to the Emirates.
Just Arsenal Opinion
Rice is a very important signing for us and could be why we succeed in the next few seasons.
The midfielder has shown his class on the books of West Ham before now and we expect him to remain one of the top players in the Premier League.
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I like Rice – he was a great player for West Ham but if I had a choice between having the midfield we have now and what we had last season I would take what we had last season.
Opinion was always divided over Xhaka but now that he has gone, and seeing how he has improved Leverkusen no one can doubt that he was far more important than people realised – and we have no replacement for him.
Talking about Xhaka, he has been massive for Leverkusen from day one, have watched all the games the former Arsenal man plays since leaving the club.
No other player has made more passes in the final third of the German league than the former Arsenal man, with the closest player some ten passes behind, Ironically another Leverkusen player..
His superior positioning as a player as seems to have even gone through the roof as well.
Rice is a superb play and a good buy for Arsenal though the price was a bit stiff. But I’ll blame West Ham for that, Rice said from the beginning that he’s an Arsenal player and West Ham involved City in the bidding and the price ballooned.
I wonder where Pep was gonna play Declan -their midfield is probably the strongest midfield in the league.
The top comment mentions this midfield versus last season’s midfield -and he prefers last season’s. So far you can’t argue with that but if we could play Partey and Rice together then it might be a closer call with Rice taking over from Xhaka