Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has sent his best wishes to Declan Rice after he chose Arsenal over the Treble winners.
Initially, West Ham had turned down a number of bids from Arsenal for the player, leading City to make their own offer.
However, City’s bid was also rejected, and they did not pursue further negotiations for the England star who had recently won the Conference League with West Ham.
There were concerns that the player might prefer a move to the Citizens, where he could potentially win numerous trophies, given the club’s recent successes. However, Rice chose Arsenal and Guardiola has finally had his say on the matter.
He said, as quoted by the Daily Mail:
‘Rice decided on Arsenal. All the best.
‘He’s an important player, a very nice guy and for England will be important. For Arsenal, what an incredible player.’
Just Arsenal Opinion
Rice is one of the best players we have added to our squad in a long time and we can see the value he adds to the side in the pre-season game he played for us.
The midfielder is one man we can be confident will justify the hefty fee we paid to add him to our squad.
However, we cannot rely on him alone; every squad player must deliver top performances for us too.
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Hope he lives up to his price tag, as he seems to go missing during the games pre season and Partey seems the better midfielder at present. He needs to shrug off the nerves and make himself busier during the game. Time will tell i hope, but for £105 million, he should be running the show, and not be just a team player, like the under performing smith rowe, there to make up the numbers without an real impact on the game. Maybe its nerves or lack of match fitness/team synch.
Yeah, quite right so.
I think Rice might have signed for Arsenal due to the fact that Man City did not up rgeir own bidding for him. That which will equalled or surpassed the bid which Arsenal offered to sign him that led to Rice joining us.
Arsenal signing of Declan Rice is a real statement of intent.
The gaffer identified the England international as someone who could provide the attlectisim and vision he felt Arsenal lacked in the middle of the park
Declan Rice may not get the arm band this season, with captain Odegaard already installed in that role. But he’s certainly someone who can keep driving us forward in tough situations as a former legend did.
Rice obviously wanted to join a London club – he himself said he would prefer to stay in the capital! I think Man City knew this and stopped bidding once they reached the top end of their valuation of the player. Now Rice has to prove them wrong!!