The saying goes that there is no smoke without fire, and that case there should be a rival to the Great Fire of London in the capital just to keep up with the rumours of West Ham’s Declan Rice making his way across London to either Arsenal or Chelsea this summer (although Manchester United has also recently been mooted as another possible suitor).
The footy journalist Ben Jacobs has been discussing the Rice saga on Fabrizio’s Daily Briefing on CaughtOffside’s substack newsletter, and he seems certain that the midfielder will be staying in his home town. He said: “Arsenal are looking for a midfielder and Declan Rice remains one of their top priorities. Rice has spoken glowingly about both Arteta and Arsenal. I am still told he prefers to stay in London, too, which both Arsenal and Chelsea can use to their advantage.
“West Ham are resigned to losing Rice. But now they are practically safe after beating Manchester United, the Hammers can be a bit more bullish. Relegation would have made it tricky to hold out for a £100m+ price.”
But many Arsenal are thinking that the chances of Arsenal entering a bidding war with Chelsea at those prices are living in cloud cuckoo land, and so Romano also discusses the other midfielders that the Gunners have in their sights in case the Rice deal fails to come to pass. He continues: “Arsenal also haven’t ruled out coming back in for Moises Caicedo and are aware of the Mason Mount situation. Real Sociedad’s Martin Zubimendi is another name linked. Arsenal have sent scouts to watch him, and the interest is genuine, but to my knowledge a deal isn’t quite as advanced as perhaps has been suggested in Spain at this point.”
Personally, I would prefer that Arteta goes back for Caicedo, especially as Edu and Arteta have already done their thorough research on the Brighton man and believe he will fit perfectly into Arteta’s philosophy and skillset, but I also think Mount has enormous potential and will likely to be massively improved at the Emirates.
Zubimendi is obviously very skilful, but without a proven track record in the EPL it may be a risk on him settling in to England quickly to be pushed straight into the first team.
Which of those three Rice alternatives would you prefer Arsenal went for?
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Some of the noise could very well be a Smoke screen, pundit Lee Dixon spoke at length on such scenario unfolding in the summer.
Let’s talk about the facts and what we know.
1) We know Moises Caicedo and Zubimendi is the ball playing midfielders the gaffer likes.
2) We know the gaffer almost break the bank to sign Caicedo.
3) Arsenal is crying out for a defensive midfielder.
4) Caicedo and Onana are the most improve midfielder in this campaign.
Then it stands to reason Moises Caicedo should be one of the first signing to join Arsenal in the summer
Personally i think Arsenal are looking to sign any of Caicedo and Zubimendi their has been a lot of talks of Rice to arsenal but i don’t see it happening the owners of Westham have shown no signs of dropping their valuation to below 100m they have said it will take British record for Rice to move and they will stand by it so i see Declan Rice remaining at Westham.
The one thing that people always seem to forget is that there’s a minimum “home-grown” rule that relates to the squad. It always seems like we’re pretty close to that limit, and there are a number of “home grown” loan players and/or squad members linked to exits, because they want playing time.
With that in mind, a regular starter who helps to meet that requirement, and is a top player at their position, is massive.
Zubimendi will be a talented, and expensive, risk who doesn’t help with the requirement for home grown players. Caicedo is a more expensive version of this, with the only plus being that he’s had one year of experience in the PL, and he seems like someone who will always be looking for the next big-money move.
Frankly, I’d stay away from both.
That leaves Mount – who is a talented player, but nowhere near the consistent talent that Rice is. Chelsea aren’t going to let him go cheaply but he has shown enough that he’d be worth the risk, if you can’t get Rice.
All of that said, if I were the team, I’d just pay up for Rice. Yes, it’s a huge amount of money, and everyone has sticker-shock from the price, and we’re gun-shy from the Pepe purchase (which, I would argue, seemed like a bad idea at the time), but that’s just the price of business when it comes to buying a top English talent, proven over multiple years, these days. The club (and we, to a lesser extent, as fans) need to decide if they want to play with the big boys on a consistent basis, or if just making the Champions League on a regular basis, but never winning it, (with an occasional F.A. Cup win) is “good enough”.
Rice helps massively with the “Home Grown” rule, and is a statement of intent. Anything else feels like “settling”….
Jack, Just to point out that we fans do not pay for Rice to come , if he comes (though we do so indirectly, of course).
So it is not our decision but the man who owns the club, Kroenke. And I SEE NO POSSIBLY WAY HE WILL ALLOW £100 MILL TRANSFER FEE OR EVEN MORE.
NO RICE for us therefore!
LOL, I hope that you’re wrong on that one – he’s already allowed Edu to spend more than I expected…
Jack, you may well “hope” I am wrong, so do I BTW, but do you also THINK I am wrong?
Cos I do not think I am!
Rice is talented player, but that is as a dm, not sure his quality as a ball playing attack building CM.
Caicedo has the versatility over Rice no doubt, and I also believe a higher ceiling as a player looking into the future.
Having to choose, I would go for Caicedo, and actually Onana second, and Rice third. I think both Caicedo and Onana are more versatile than Rice, and would guess cheaper as well without the English Tax.
Not sure if homegrown quota is a problem for the club, but I do not think so at this point.
Rice , just go all in for him .
Reckon , Caceido would be off as soon as real etc.. come in for him ..
Rice, Partey, Jorg, Xhaka
Sounds solid
Actually, the quota is an important consideration during every window, because we’re always cutting it close, in terms of the numbers.
Please feel free to correct me if I am mistaken but here’s my understanding:
The official maximum squad size is 25, of which no more than 17 can be non-homegrown. That means that at least 8 have to qualify as homegrown. Loan players don’t count. Players under 21 don’t count either.
Ramsdale, White, Holding, Saka, Smith-Rowe and Nketiah are, I think, the only ones currently in the squad whom can be reasonably expected to be in the squad next season and would count as HG next season. Any young players that they promote to the squad who are under 21 don’t count either, as mentioned above.
If the above is correct, the choices will be to (a) promote two HG players who are over 21 to the first team squad, (b) promote 1 and bring 1 in from outside, (c) bring in 2 from the outside, or (d) keep a smaller “official” squad and supplement it with young players under 21.
As much as we love the academy graduates, I defy you to name 2, 21 or older, who will be worth promoting for any reason other than to meet the quota, so (a) is not a realistic option.
There’s a reason City regularly seem to overpay for young English players, who might have a hard time beating out foreign incumbents. It’s not just because they can, but because they’re smart enough to recognize the need to meet the quota and choose to do so with quality players, not filler like Matt Smith (sorry, Matt) – which is what we did this season.
As for your positional argument, even if you’re correct about their capabilities, why did we falter late in the season? It wasn’t so much because we didn’t score – it’s more because we shipped goals. We scored 7 vs Liverpool, West Ham and Southampton (the latter two being poor teams), and took only 3 points from those games when we probably should have had 9. If we’d taken the 9, then the title would still be in our own hands. Depth at DM is critical to sustaining success.
Ode and Smith Rowe
Added in more advanced role sounds really good!
With all the Moises Caicedo talk, we do realise that he signed a new contract with BHA after our 70+ mil bid was turned down.
His new contract does not have a release clause so if we were to go back in for him we will also be looking north of 100 mil before BHA even entertain the idea.
That Bloom is a clever character as he has done the same with McAllister.
Arsenal are not still learning as a team. Next season is going to be tough and for a team to be on the front line such must do extra things. Frankly speaking, Caceido will be a good take.
Coinciedo is better
5-year contract paying 20m a season might be the way we go about Rice. or something similar with Caicedo to a lesser extent???