Chelsea remained in the race for Declan Rice up until January, but it seems the uncertainty over Graham Potter’s future and the general state of the club led him to favour a transfer to Arsenal instead.
According to Ben Jacobs in his exclusive CaughtOffside column, Rice seemed generally unconvinced by the pitch Chelsea made to him, whereas Mikel Arteta and other key Arsenal figures clearly did well to win him over.
The England international was also a target for Manchester City, but Jacobs says that even if they’d matched Arsenal’s bid for him, he would’ve chosen to move to the Emirates Stadium.
This followed months of effort from Arsenal, with Arteta key to Rice’s decision, while the 24-year-old also spoke to Bukayo Saka and Aaron Ramsdale, as well as Gunners legend Ian Wright.
“Arsenal have their number one summer target in Declan Rice. For many months the now former West Ham captain only wanted Arsenal,” Jacobs explained.
“In fact, even if Manchester City had matched the £105m package, Rice still would have picked Arsenal. That’s partly why City pulled out. Their only real hope was to trump Arsenal’s package, but instead it was the Gunners who bid big. This played right into West Ham’s hands, who wanted a bidding war.
“Back in January, Arsenal actually felt like £70-75m might be possible, especially with West Ham fighting relegation at the time. Arsenal have paid far more in the end, but they view the huge fee as an investment not an expense. They also didn’t want a repeat of the Mykhaylo Mudryk saga and to risk being outbid. I do think when they placed the £105m offer that was at the back of their mind.
“Arsenal knew Rice spoke glowingly of Mikel Arteta and ideally wanted to stay in London so that helped their cause. But Chelsea were in the mix as well up until January.
“Graham Potter wanted Rice yet Chelsea moved for Enzo Fernandez instead. Rice was originally open to returning to Chelsea but just not sold by the pitch. And he always feared Potter wouldn’t be the manager he would end up playing under, and was ultimately proven right.
“Arteta was extremely hands on in the pitch presenting Rice with a lengthy presentation. This included how he would improve Rice’s attacking numbers even further. Rice was told he could get into double figures at Arsenal in terms of goal-scoring without necessarily changing his identity too much. This comes off the back of two seasons where Rice has scored five goals in all competitions.
“Arteta values Rice’s progressive passing, leadership and made it clear to the 24-year-old he would be a staple of the team for several seasons if all goes to plan.
“Rice also did his own homework speaking to Aaron Ramsdale and Bukayo Saka about Arsenal and Arteta. He even had a conversation with Arsenal legend Ian Wright.”
Arsenal fans will no doubt be thrilled that their manager and players past and present could have such a positive impact in what could go down as one of the most significant signings of the whole summer.