Inside Declan Rice’s Arsenal move: Arteta influence, long-term plan, no transfer request – The Athletic

This time it was really all or nothing for Arsenal. No plan B, no capacity for economical switching to alternative destinations and therefore no margin for error.

It was Declan Rice or bust.

The West Ham United captain has been everything to Mikel Arteta this summer. For months, club officials had reiterated that he could not be overstated how central he was to the Arsenal manager’s vision.

Without him, Arteta’s plan to take his team to the next level in the fourth year of his reign just didn’t materialize. Every other transfer target was inseparable from Rice as the core, the core that would make everything else make sense.

That was the message conveyed to Rice by Arsenal’s subtle courtship of the West Ham captain.

Although patience was called for in the final weeks of negotiations following two rejected offers before Manchester City stepped up in the eleventh hour, Arsenal finally got their man and the deal with West Ham was finally signed at 5pm on Friday, with Rice one Five-year deal signed contract with option to extend for another year.

The £100m ($130.9m) fee plus £5m in potential surcharges is more than they expected – they had believed the final price would be between £70m and £80m at the start of the search, but failed in the end to a Premier League record for a British player, set in the summer of 2021 when Manchester City signed Jack Grealish from Aston Villa. It was a deal that they should have done half a year earlier but Arsenal won’t bother with it.

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Declan Rice, dissected

They believe they have bought a talent that is unparalleled in their position.

And if Rice is as transformative as Arsenal believe he can be, much like how the outstanding signings of Virgil van Dijk and Alisson have enriched Jurgen Klopp’s growing Liverpool team in the fourth year of his tenure, the prize money will be the additional funds made available to do so get back deal – and then some.

Arsenal had long identified Rice as the crucial missing piece of the puzzle, but it wasn’t until January of this year that the serious pursuit began.

After Arteta consulted Arsenal’s England side, consisting of Bukayo Saka and Aaron Ramsdale, to gain insight into his personality and leadership qualities, Arteta’s desire to ensure that Rice would soon be based in the Borough of Islington, six miles west of the London’s West Ham Stadium would play football.

He aimed to get this in January after they made him their top target for the winter window. Arsenal were seriously investigating a potential deal this month, but it turned out it was unlikely to materialize, both financially and with Rice even more indispensable given West Ham’s low position in the Premier League.

West Ham chairman David Sullivan did not want to lose the club’s talisman in the relegation battle.

Little did he know that Rice would not only bring David Moyes’ team to safety, but also to the Europa Conference League title in May. Whilst Rice always remained the main target, Arsenal – with a deal not possible in January – also turned their attention to Brighton midfielder Moises Caicedo.

After a £60m bid for Caicedo was quickly rejected and told he was not for sale, Arsenal didn’t take no for an answer. They returned on the penultimate day of the winter window with a £70m offer for the Ecuadorian, who had taken to social media to ask Brighton to approve the transfer.

Brighton stood their ground and offered Caicedo a terrific new contract, in the mutual understanding that a move somewhere in the summer, possibly Arsenal, was all but inevitable.

So Arsenal switched again, this time to a different type of deep midfielder. While Rice and Caicedo are known for their strength and all-rounder qualities, Chelsea’s Italy international Jorginho is a intellectual player who makes up for his lack of agility with the way he dictates the game.

Signing a player who turned 31 in December was a short-term option as Arteta felt he needed something special in midfield if Arsenal were to have the depth needed to compete in the title race.

Caicedo was another option for Arsenal in January (Picture: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

In the weeks following the January window, Arsenal resumed the pursuit of their main target – Rice.

And The Athletic can reveal that it was a recent face-to-face meeting between Arteta, Arsenal’s sporting director Edu Gaspar and Rice that convinced the England midfielder how keen they were to secure his signing.

As is now the norm with almost all deals, Arteta and Edu Rice gave a detailed presentation explaining the project, the role he had to play in it, and the footage of him that convinced them he was the man , which they needed.

They ended their overture by putting the ball in Rice’s court: The train departed – did it get on?

Rice’s representatives have met with several big clubs but none have been on the same level as Arsenal when it comes to the details and personalization of their pitch. The 24-year-old was ranked so highly in so many different aspects of Arsenal’s recruitment evaluation system that Arteta almost had a book full of accounts on him. That’s why he was so excited about the signing, and Rice realized that as he explained what his role as No. 6 would entail.

Arsenal went into the summer window confident they had developed a good working relationship with their West Ham counterparts.

Last summer West Ham had sent out legal letters to warn other sides against advances and threatened action if they had evidence of a signing, but this summer there was an understanding that it was Rice’s time, at the highest level of playing club football.

Personal terms were generally not seen as an issue, thanks largely to the tremendous back-up work done by Edu and Head of Football Richard Garlick with the player and his family. Rice’s affairs are handled by his father and brother with the support of a trade advisor, but this has always been a big deal.

At Arsenal there was no desire to waste anyone else’s time and Arteta was also adamant about strengthening the squad before they embark on their pre-season tour of the United States tomorrow (16 July).

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Arsenal duly waited for West Ham to enjoy the celebrations after returning as Europa Conference League champions in 2022-23 and for Rice to leave the English camp following last month’s doubles encounter with Malta and North Macedonia in EURO qualifiers.

But then the situation was felt to be healthy enough to make the first move, which The Athletic exclusively revealed came on June 14 when Arsenal made an opening offer worth £65m plus £15m in surcharges submitted.

This was denied but they remained in dialogue with their London neighbors and the discussions were aided by talks that took place earlier in the day at the Premier League AGM in Hampshire between Arsenal manager Tim Lewis and West Ham colleague Karren Brady.

Lewis was instrumental in discussions between clubs about fees and payment structures, acting as a go-between for the Arsenal owners when it came to moving forward with the next offer. However, Edu and Garlick led the case at Arsenal, with the latter heavily involved in player negotiations.

Arsenal took their time to weigh up what figure to propose next and six days later on the following Tuesday (20 June) submitted a club-record offer of £75m plus £15m.

Rice led West Ham to the 2022-23 Europa Conference League title (Photo: Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images)

As expected, this too was rejected, but it was accepted that Arsenal were approaching a total that West Ham would find acceptable.

It felt like a one-horse race at this point, even though Rice’s talent had won admirers for several years.

Manchester United were credited with an interest in him last summer but they have been busy signing Casemiro from Real Madrid and Frenkie de Jong from Barcelona for their midfield.

This summer reports weighed that United could offer cash plus players for Rice, with Scott McTominay, Harry Maguire and Anthony Elanga all being players who could have been interesting for Moyes as a substitute.

Liverpool refrained from meeting the Rices at all. They were never really in the race and a source said that Jude Bellingham was also considered as they were in the race for his signature at the time and didn’t want his camp to be upset. Rice’s fellow England midfielder Bellingham later joined Real Madrid.

Meanwhile, Bayern Munich’s former Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel was a fan of Rice and was keen to bring him to Germany but was aware of how Arsenal had outstripped everyone.

In that sense, the plan had worked. Arsenal’s aim was to gain a head start on potential suitors and prevent a public auction. But then, on Sunday June 25, they plunged into the world of uncertainty they had been trying to avoid.

Newly-crowned treble winners Manchester City made sure there would be no hassle-free process by submitting an offer of £80m plus £10m in surcharges, meaning a higher guaranteed sum for West Ham.

Pep Guardiola’s side, which so brutally derailed Arsenal’s title fight in April and May, had tried to dupe their London rivals. To make matters worse, Arsenal were already so far advanced with their Rice plan at this point that there was no longer an option to reverse it.

A £65m deal for Chelsea’s Kai Havertz was all but complete and the entire tactical makeover of Arteta’s midfield came about with the German playing alongside Rice.

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Havertz is set to succeed Granit It’s a bold move but was seen as doable as Arteta believes Rice has the athleticism and ball-winning ability to complement Havertz and Martin Odegaard on either side.

Added to this was the fact that Caicedo was considered an irretrievable alternative at the time.

Arsenal burned some bridges with the Brighton hierarchy with their persistence in January and one felt that Chelsea had put in so much prep work outside that window that the South American was practically wrapped in blue ribbons.

But Arsenal checked in with Caicedo’s camp when West Ham seemed slow to make progress over a transfer fee for Rice.

That alone shows how nervous Arsenal were over the two days as they considered the two players to be in a league of their own when it came to the type of midfielder they were looking for.

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Any other alternatives would have represented a significant drop from the elite level required for September’s return to Champions League football for the first time in seven seasons.

When City officially entered the race for Rice, Arsenal were dismayed. In their eyes, the player had signaled for some time that the Emirates Stadium was his dream destination. Would the lure of the national and European champions to replace outgoing captain Ilkay Gundogan at the Etihad Stadium and play under Guardiola twist him?

It would certainly have gotten him thinking, and Arsenal wanted Rice to reaffirm his commitment to them.

For that, however, Arsenal now knew they had to come close to West Ham’s rating.

The decision-making process at Arsenal is more bureaucratic than some other clubs, with names and personalities having to climb from the scouting system through Arteta, Edu and Garlick to the majority owners, the Kroenke family in the US, before an official move can be signed.

It is then communicated down the hierarchy, which is designed as a mutual control model but can be perceived externally as too leaden a process to react quickly in the fast-paced environment of a transfer window.

They certainly felt it when West Ham were quick to reject both offers, which were seen as well below their valuation and also too staggered in terms of payment schedule.

However, despite the doubts that have arisen, there has been confidence that Arsenal are still the front runners.

And so it was when they came back on June 27 with an offer that put City out of the running. A £105million package was enough to move the talks into the final stages of negotiations over payment terms.

When City looked for encouragement to take on Arsenal and tempt Rice, they didn’t get it and withdrew from the race.

Arsenal had to go significantly higher to get the deal across the finish line. Is there a risk in buying a young player with no Champions League experience for more than £100m? Naturally. But taking the roster to the next level is a calculated task – and also a coup that a player of Rice’s quality saw as his natural next step.

City may be the dominant side to win the treble, but there were plenty of reasons why a move to Arsenal made sense for Rice.

Whilst City appear to be at the end of their rope as a side, a move to Arsenal was about the opportunity to find success and move towards the eventual title. Rice would join one of the youngest rosters in Europe’s major leagues, a team on an upward trend, and he would be given a key role in leading the transition from challengers to champions.

Treble winners City were in contention for Rice’s signature (Photo: Peter Byrne/PA Images via Getty Images)

Only the third West Ham captain to lift a trophy in the club’s 123-year history, he is a character craving responsibility, having taken the armband in 2022 aged just 23.

There’s a reason his West Ham team-mates continued to chant ’10 years to go, 10 years to Declan Rice…’ after the away win against Bournemouth in April, a game in which he delivered another performance as Man of the Match .

He had given them his word that he would never submit a transfer request to force a move as he wanted his exit to be handled gracefully. Although staff were aware that this would be his last season at West Ham, they saw no change in his involvement.

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Instead, after two player hits following the away defeat at London rivals Tottenham Hotspur in February, which sent West Ham into the relegation zone with 15 games to go, they saw Rice change his management style to try and motivate the group.

He took it upon himself to take the lead and became significantly more vocal around the training ground. He challenged the players when they weren’t training hard enough and tried to rekindle the team spirit that had taken them to seventh place and the Europa League semi-finals last season.

Rice did not want to be part of a relegation, even if West Ham’s relegation to the Championship would have made his exit easier. He’s someone who could have stayed at the club for the rest of his career as he has a lot of affection for him – but his talent and ambition meant that would never happen and so he wanted to leave the club with a good feeling.

He showed excellent form in the final three months of the season, giving West Ham better control of games with his signature dynamic runs and game changes. It ultimately led them to glory that night in Prague against Italian club Fiorentina and to fellow right-back Vladimir Coufal claiming Rice’s intervention ‘saved our season’.

There were delays in unveiling his Arsenal team due to further discussions about the payment structure of the deal. West Ham this morning confirmed his departure – although the statement made no mention that he would be joining Arsenal – and Rice also released a suicide note to fans. Arsenal then confirmed the signing a few hours later.

Arsenal averted a summer saga by announcing the move just before flying to the United States for a three-game pre-season tour and Rice will board the plane to Washington DC with his new team-mates tomorrow.

The question Arsenal asked Rice at the start of this transfer was if he was on board. He is now and they hope the goal with the 24-year-old at the wheel in midfield is the club’s first Premier League title since 2004.

Additional Reporting: James McNicholas, Laurie Whitwell, Andy Naylor, David Ornstein

(Top Photo: Getty Images; Graphic: Sam Richardson)