lol it’s really not that marquee of a signing.
I mean if we don’t sign him we jsut move to the next
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Scary that people treat it that way. Your not wrong though.
Is it not? He’ll probably be the biggest signing the club has ever pulled since Ozil.
The guy is sought after by almost every big club. I said it before, if he is not #1(because of Bellingham), he is certainly #2 on the most sought after midfielders of the market, and Bellingham is already a Madridista.
To pull off such a transfer with the competition out there as Barca, PSG, Bayern, City, Chelsea, Man Utd, Newcastle and Liverpool are all looking for a midfielder. That’s a massive statement and an achievement on its own.
Tbf, it will probably be an even bigger deal that the Ozil one considering the context.
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Lol really?
Sanchez
Aubameyang
Tbh even Saliba was more exciting as he was supposed to be one of the best young talents in the world - looks to be true so far.
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100% agree. Rice would be a bigger and more important signing than any of our marquee signings. I’d probably say the biggest and most important since Sol Campbell if we pull it off.
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Wtf is going on in this thread lol
People acting like we’re signing prime iniesta or yaya toure ffs
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IMO Rice is going to be one of the most dominant and best midfielders in the PL over the next 5 years. I’ve said it before and I’m sticking by it. We have to sign him this summer.
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I can’t believe you said Sanchez and Auba.
Sanchez was surplus to requirements at Barca and people found him a weirdo there(we later on found out why). Our only competition for him was Liverpool.
Auba wasn’t even doing that well when we got him. Dortmund fans were souring on him and the management actually welcomed selling him. We had a fucking free run for him. Chelsea even did us a favour with the Aubameyang-Batshuayi-Giroud domino.
Saliba was someone Madrid had an eye on but Madrid have an eye on a bunch of players. I don’t remember then moving for him. It was us and Spurs, and we got him over them.
Rice will be a far, far bigger deal.
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This is certifiable nonsense. He might be the biggest English signing since Sol.
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I’m talking about quality and status of the player. Both Sanchez and Aubameyang were world class players and huge coups for our state at the time as well. Who cares how many clubs were in for them?
I see nothing special about the 2nd placed team in the PL signing a midfielder from a team who spent most of the season in a relegation battle, at a massive fee at that. If we get him cool, hopefully Arteta will mould him into the 8 he wanted Xhaka to be, if not then we move for another target.
Be interested to see credible links for half those teams you listed btw, on here been us and Bayern that’ve been posted. Some Man United bollocks but then a tweet that also said they haven’t been interested since they got Casemiro almost 12 months ago.
Anyway I’ll leave people to it 
Don’t want to be a killjoy just found it hilarious some of the comments as if we might as well fold as a club should we not get rice.
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I see Rice as future England skipper, and this is how big it is
Arsenal, England skipper, worth 100m already
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Rice would be the biggest signing since Ozil in terms of impact and statement.
Auba and Alexis were down bad when we picked them up
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From the clubs looking for midfielders only PSG and Barca haven’t been linked by anyone credible.
Mind you, Barca would need pull another lever to even pay half of what Rice would cost.
And PSG don’t even spend that kind of money on transfers anymore. They just hand out dirty contracts to bozos who’ll come for free or relatively normal fees.
I would be shocked if their names ever gets mentioned for Rice.
So far, the ones that have been reliably linked:
- Arsenal (apparently frontrunners)
- Chelsea (I don’t know what they’re doing)
- Man Utd (I don’t know how they can afford him on top of other business they have to do)
- Newcastle (they’re a bit of unknown, we don’t know how willing they are to flex their muscles)
- City (just monitoring the situation apparently, which is probably the scariest because you don’t know if they decide one day to properly join in, we know they were keen on Bellingham, so the money is there)
- Liverpool (they were interested in both him and Bellingham but they need multiple midfielders so they can’t afford paying that much on a single one)
- Bayern (they want him but unclear if they can afford him)
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Do not want to put down Alexis and Auba, but they were unwanted players when we got them.
Fact.
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Sorry mate but that all sounds like absolute twitter nothingness lol
I’m out. fwiw I’m very confident personally that we’ll sign him if Mikel is happy with the fee, I don’t see any club other than City who could pop up and offer a better prospect for him so it’s really quite simple for him.
Chelsea would’ve been a threat had they not been a total mess.
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I was gonna who I think are our biggest competition in this but I slowly realized all of them have the capacity of going to West Ham and Rice, ask what’s it gonna take, and pay them.
I guess Liverpool is the unlikeliest one considering their need for multiple midfielders and having already started with Mac Allister being close to joining, then again, they went about signing Gakpo and Nunez under the radar, you never know.
Ozil, Alexis and Auba were amazing signings. I can remember how excited I was at the prospect of watching each of them all play for Arsenal. I may not be as excited by Rice, but I think he would be a bigger and more important signing for us.
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Tbh, there’s nothing wrong with that. You’ll actually find many of our most notable players from the present and the past might not have been highly sought after when we got them.
I don’t remember teams lining up for Thierry, he was branded a flop at Juve if I recall correctly. And if we want a recent example. Madrid were never that impressed by Odegaard, despite his feats at various clubs he was loaned to. They ended up selling him for peanuts considering what and semi-decent players go for now.
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Yups! Often, the top clubs are blind to talent that appears like a diamond in the rough.
Case in point: Odegaard, Salah, Debruyne the list goes on…
Huge Rice fan, but no way in hell would he be a bigger statement signing than Alexis or Auba.