✍️ OFFICIAL Declan Rice

[SA Gunner]

I wasn't sure I wanted Rice initially, but I've come to value having his personality in the squad. Especially with Xhaka leaving. I don't think any other team is getting the jump on us on this one.

He's a pretty athletic guy who can play. I don't see him as just a sitting number 6. We are building 2 ways of playing. Rice, partey/jorginho and Ødegaard seems "hard to beat". Havertz Ødegaard Partey/Jorginho seems more designed to blow teams away.

The big concern I have is if both Xhaka and Partey leave in one window. That's a new midfield entirely and is somewhat unpredictable.

Yes, having to rebuild cohesion with both Xhaka and TP5 gone is going to take some time. Even if we bring in both Rica and Lavia/Caicedo.

Should be enough for a top 4 challenge next season, but it will leave us short for a title win IMO. City have now settled down and are likely to give us another long flawless run for long parts of next season.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

There’s no way Declan Rice plays as an 8 in a Pep Guardiola team. I rate the guy highly, think his technical level is a bit underrated but look at the 8s Pep has had in the past: KDB, Gundogan, Silva, Cesc, Xavi, Iniesta ect.

Us clearing out Partey is even more proof we’re rolling out the red carpet for him.

Surely that’s the type of players we should be looking to sign as well? Technical ability over everything in midfield.

 

[Erlis]

So, is it decided yet, who is this genius of football going to replace, Partey, Xhaka, Jesus, Ramsdale.. or maybe Arteta?

 

[BigPoppaPump]

Now that this is all but done, where do you rate rice within the big three carbs?

Bread >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Pasta >> Rice for me.

Surely it would be big 4 with Potatoes in there?

 

[Sapient Hawk]

Surely it would be big 4 with Potatoes in there?

I beg to differ.

Anything that might indirectly give Sp**s credit is certainly off the table!!

 

[SA Gunner]

It would be interesting to see Rice as a lone pivot during pre-season and how much of the space he can cover on his own.

Reason being is because I want us to use White and Kiwior as our right back, left back combination. With our fullbacks inverting and overlapping dynamically depending on the game situation. This keeps our attack potent, with higher attacking numbers (4-6, 3-7), in addition to having a solid defence.

Something like..

Rice
Kiwior--Gabriel--Saliba---White

You play this against teams who want to be physical and counter attack.

 

[Nunowoolmez]

It would be interesting to see Rice as a lone pivot during pre-season and how much of the space he can cover on his own.

Reason being is because I want us to use White and Kiwior as our right back, left back combination. With our fullbacks inverting and overlapping dynamically depending on the game situation. This keeps our attack potent, with higher attacking numbers (4-6, 3-7), in addition to having a solid defence.

Something like..

Rice
Kiwior--Gabriel--Saliba---White

You play this against teams who want to be physical and counter attack.

I had also thought about this.

You'd play Ode & Havertz as dual 10s in front of Rice & behind the front 3.

 

[MikelHadADream]

Surely that’s the type of players we should be looking to sign as well? Technical ability over everything in midfield.

For the number 8 position definitely.

I think Rice is a DM for us all day long though, and would be a really good one at that. I don’t really get this idea that he plays further forward in a better team, England are better than West Ham and he’s a DM for them.

 

[MikelHadADream]

It would be interesting to see Rice as a lone pivot during pre-season and how much of the space he can cover on his own.

Reason being is because I want us to use White and Kiwior as our right back, left back combination. With our fullbacks inverting and overlapping dynamically depending on the game situation. This keeps our attack potent, with higher attacking numbers (4-6, 3-7), in addition to having a solid defence.

Something like..

Rice
Kiwior--Gabriel--Saliba---White

You play this against teams who want to be physical and counter attack.

Kiwior is the interesting one for me. When you break down our potential CB options next season, we’ve got Saliba/Gabriel who will primarily operate in the centre of the defence, and then White/Timber/Tomi who are the hybrids that can move out wide if needed.

We haven’t seen much of Kiwior so don’t know which category he’ll fall into, but it would be really useful if we could play him at LB.

 

[pettr]

Kiwior is the interesting one for me. When you break down our potential CB options next season, we’ve got Saliba/Gabriel who will primarily operate in the centre of the defence, and then White/Timber/Tomi who are the hybrids that can move out wide if needed.

We haven’t seen much of Kiwior so don’t know which category he’ll fall into, but it would be really useful if we could play him at LB.

We played him as LB the last couple of games if I remember correctly. He was very defensive, not much going forward. The sample size is small, so don't think we can judge him based on few games. Hopefully he will be good for us, remember Lewandowski interview where he spoke positive of him...

 

[ArsenalInMyHeart]

 

[MikelHadADream]

We played him as LB the last couple of games if I remember correctly. He was very defensive, not much going forward. The sample size is small, so don't think we can judge him based on few games. Hopefully he will be good for us, remember Lewandowski interview where he spoke positive of him...

Think he looks quite good. Fast, tall good on the ball. He needs to get used to the team and league ect and probably bulk up a bit, but think he looks promising.

He played LB at Forest and struggled a bit, but the whole team was poor. The question is if he’s comfortable defending 1v1 out wide, like White, Tomi and Timber are.

If we can get Rice and Timber Arteta is putting together a pretty formidable group of defensive players.

 

[Makingtrax]

409 pages and he might not even be coming here.

 

[footiegirl58]

I think the

409 pages and he might not even be coming here.

Hes coming here just a matter of time

 

[say yes]

Surely it would be big 4 with Potatoes in there?

Knew I was forgetting one. With potatoes:

Bread > Potatoes > Pasta > Rice

 

[Red London]

I’m not too concerned personally. City would have to be idiots to sign him, in their system he can only play in Rodri’s position. I know they have money but they spend it wisely. £100m for someone who they don’t have a real position for is ridiculous.

Ten Haag said he doesn’t even know what his budget is as United try to sort out ownership. They’re cheaping out on Mount for this reason (and they need a CF badly) so there is no chance they come in for Rice at the moment. 90% sure Rice picks us over them anyway as we have put a lot of time into this + Arteta seems to have an insane pull with some players.

I see this being concluded in the next 3-4 business days.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

Knew I was forgetting one. With potatoes:

Bread > Potatoes > Pasta > Rice

This is definitely cultural

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Di marzio say man city will join the race for Rice. Doesn't seem from his info tho

 

[Red London]

This is definitely cultural

Not necessarily, I’m Armenian with my parents being born in Middle Eastern countries where rice is big, but my preference is not rice.

When given a choice of all of them (living in a city like London with diverse food options and cuisines) people will gravitate to whatever they like best.

But yeah of course in those particular nations where it is a bit more limited to the cultural choice of carb, people will naturally go down that pathway.

 

[OnlyOne]

If anyone reliable says City are prepared to bid then Rice has obviously told them he’d be open to join.

That’s being said, no one reliable has said they’d bid.