In this episode I chat to Charles Watts about Declan Rice, after the news of Man City’s interest in him. It’s far from a surprise but definitely a complication, and we discuss the challenges Arsenal face, City’s push to sign him, the financial differences at play, and how important it is to get this priority signing done after missing out on some previous deals in the January window. We also talk about Kai Havertz expected arrival, and why so much of this transfer window feels dependent on us landing the West Ham captain. There’s also some chat about Thomas Partey, and how the Saudi Arabian league could impact the market this summer.
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17 Comments
and sounds like city in for rice.. calvin phillips will be going hang on i’m here!!! 🤪 ah you mentioned it.. too quick to reply and like 😂
i’d question man city are well run.. 115 breaches.. 🤪
I obviously know nothing about how to make a football transfer happen, but I do find it strange how Arsenal do business. Just offering below the amount for apparently no reason as we either lose out on the player or end up paying the full amount anyway. Is there ever an example of us getting a deal by doing this? Just pay West Ham what they want if Rice is so important to us.
Unless we change ownership and become state funded, or get an owner with connections to one, we are not gonna fire 100m pound notes at other Premier League clubs for their players. We also would be unable to compete financially with the clubs that are state funded like Chelsea, City, Newcastle and soon, United.
People say "but we paid 65m for Havertz" which is technically not true: we are obligated to pay that over the next 5 years, with 17m/year installments. Rice would cost two 50m installments in 13 months, so it's by definition a deal more than triple the size of the Havertz deal. We bid what West Ham are asking on the first attempt and then we'd only have one signing in our team when the season starts. If he gets injured, we have done absolutely nothing during the summer.
And when these players get into this team/club, they don't want to leave, as evidenced by Saka, Saliba, Ramsdale, Odegaard, etc. We have financial limits, and need to structure our deals because of it as Charles said, and I believe we're doing splendidly well within that framework.
Charles Watts, Independent. Good luck with the new career path Charles
It’s the usual initial excitement buying a top player , they then buy another player then you find out who’s going , then they buy players from competitors that they don’t want. Should have concentrated on Rice then look at other players. I’ve been there before with Arsenal . Love to see the deal Arsenal offered West Ham. So far 67,000,000 for Havertz.Sorry but your assessment is incorrect .
Delete club if true
67M for Havertz is bad enough… but no Declan Rice or Caceido to pair up with him is even worse. Really hope they have some special player as their 2nd or 3rd option because this summer could start looking real bad with the lack of depth already present. That midfield is even more bare with a Partey exit, a player that I don't even have a problem selling atm, but no replacement becomes an absolute cluster fak for this team with CL.
I enjoy the way Charles approaches arsenal, with sanity. I am very happy to hear him on the Arsecast!
Rice is going to City. How does everyone not already see this?!
I’m only ten minutes in so perhaps should be patient, as you’ll likely mention it, but I think winning the treble may work against them with rice. If he joins City and they win another treble, OK, kind of expected. Rice joins Arsenal and they win the league, history remembers him as the addition to the team that placed second. He’ll be expected to win with City, so can only really surprise by losing.
My hatred for City grows daily.
Really..fuck them.
Thanks for the extra podcast guys. Good to hear the Rice situation debated sensibly. Totally agree with Charles that failure to land Rice will look very different from our failure to land Murdyk (sic). Would leave them looking very red-faced. A 29-year-old plan B won´t be so easy to take in the way Trossard did in January. Will colour our transfer window completely and have a big effect on how we line up for the next few seasons. Where does it leave Arteta´s project? Can only hope they pull together a package that gets this over the line and that Rice pushes for the move. "Interesting" was the word by both in terms of what´s happening. Can think of other adjectives.
Charles is one of the top guests, good stuff
Arseblog and Charles Watts. The crossover no one expected, but everyone wanted! More of this lads, please 😊
Obviously even if Arsenal was to bring 200M for Rice, ManCity w'd still bring 210M to get the deal done to kill off competition for next season. Its high time we started negotiating for near-better options before its too late. Its frustrating for Arteta not to always get his first choices for team improvement.
Maybe if we sign Rice + Timber, playing Havertz next to Ode would simulate the midfield box that City played the last few months.