Declan Rice has completed a £105million transfer from West Ham to their Premier League rivals Arsenal – making him the most expensive English footballer of all time
Declan Rice will join Arsenal with big pressure on his shoulders.
âThe England midfielder is the missing link expected to help Arsenal get back to the days of being serial winners. That is fundamentally the reason Arsenal were willing to splash £105m on the West Ham captain, but Rice will also bring leadership to match his quality.
âIt would have been easy for Rice to opt to join Manchester City when they showed an interest, but what is admirable about the 24-year-old’s ambition is his desire to help Arsenal build long-term success. That is the vision which Mikel Arteta sold to Rice when he convinced him to join Arsenal and why City’s interest was far too late and Bayern Munich never got past first base.
When Arsenal played at Manchester City at the end of April, they were outplayed in every sense but the biggest and perhaps most obvious gap between the two teams was presence on the pitch. And not just from a physical sense.