Arsenal have turned heads by making one of the most expensive signings of the summer 2023 transfer window, spending 105 million pounds in an up-front fee and add-ons in order to sign Declan Rice from West Ham United.
Such a hefty fee for a midfielder is bound to draw criticism, and it necessitates taking a closer look at the reasoning behind Arsenal making such a transfer. As we saw with their success last season in pushing Manchester City for the Premier League title, this squad was not built haphazardly, nor have Mikel Arteta and Maurice Edu made unnecessary gambles on the transfer market.
So let’s explain why the 100 million pound up-front transfer fee for Declan Rice is a worthy investment by Arsenal as they look to return to the summit of European football in 2023 and beyond.
A necessary skill set
Firstly, it is vital to discuss the construction of the Arsenal squad. Every decision Mikel Arteta and Maurice Edu have made on the market has been in line with the vision of what the manager wants. Each player signed by the Gunners is supposed to fit the team in terms of their playing style, mentality, and tactical role.
Arsenal have a leader with great character in goal, a highly technical left back who can function as a midfielder, a defensive right back who allows the forwards more freedom, two of the best center backs in the Premier League, a well-rounded striker who helps the world-class young wingers get into better goal-scoring positions, and a young captain functioning as the playmaker pulling the strings.
Missing, however, was a midfielder to truly anchor the side. As Thomas Partey is linked to Saudi Arabia and Juventus, Granit Xhaka gears up for a return to the Bundesliga, and Jorginho fulfills his role as a veteran on the bench, Arsenal were searching for a truly world-class No. 6.
Arsenal needed to sign someone who can effectively win possession without sacrificing positional sense. They needed to sign a midfielder with the physicality and nous to be an effective counterweight to Manchester City’s superstar Rodri. Moreover, they needed to sign someone willing to be braver on the ball than Thomas, someone who could pick out more progressive passes and do a better job of leading teammates into more optimal positions in the attacking third.
Declan Rice was the only player Arsenal could have possibly signed that would make them substantially better and tick off each of these vital boxes. Without him, Arsenal would have been forced to scramble for a sub-optimal option. They have spent 100 million pounds on Rice, but they could have ended up spending the same amount of money on two, inferior players with no upside of a potential future return on investment.
Anchors are expensive
However, the phase “return on investment” means very little to Arsenal right now. They are operating on the mentality that nothing is more important than the sporting project and that if the sporting project is success at an elite level, the revenue streams will follow from that success and from the elevation of the individual brand identities of players who are a part of such a successful squad. Basically, they are taking the post-Galáctico Real Madrid mentality, whereas clubs like Chelsea and PSG are still stuck in the “posh” past of chasing names.
Real Madrid, of course, have spent a combined 180 million euros on Aurélien Tchouaméni and Jude Bellingham in the last two summer transfer windows, even though the midfield was already the strongest part of the squad. They were willing to spend so much on these two midfielders because they knew they were rare profiles whom they could never find a better possible option than over, potentially, the next five years. These were players they HAD to sign for their sporting project.
It is important to bring up similarly expensive midfielders in recent transfer windows to provide examples of precedent. There is still a belief held by the average fan that only forwards should cost this kind of money, but the reality is that midfielders are becoming just as important in the modern game. And in fact, players who can affect all phases of the game significantly like Bellingham, Tchouaméni, and, of course, Rice are even more valuable than forwards because they touch so many aspects of a team’s performance.
Declan Rice was always going to cost 100 million pounds because he is a valuable, young Premier League midfielder who is already a world-class player and can do many things at the highest level. He averaged a combined 3.8 tackles and interceptions per game with a key pass per game last season, completing 88 percent of his passes. Rice was one of the best passers and defenders in the midfield in the entire Premier League despite playing for a subpar West Ham side.
Making a statement to Manchester City
Above all else, Arsenal had to pay so much for Declan Rice because the market pushed them to. Beyond the fact that West Ham understood the value of the player due to his age, quality, potential, and scarcity of role, Manchester City were also intent on paying a premium price for the player.
They offered 90 million pounds in total for Rice, which was close to the 100 million pound asking price West Ham set. Arsenal then matched the offer up-front with an additional five million in bonuses to make sure that the Hammers would say yes and to put the onus on City to match them. City decided not to.
So Arsenal went toe-to-toe with a club back by the United Arab Emirates that has spent 1.7 billion euros over the last decade and beat them on the transfer market. That means everything to a manager, to players, and to the fans of Arsenal to see the ambition from their club’s leadership to be willing to sign their top target no matter what and prove they can go toe-to-toe with the biggest financial power on the market.
Because implicitly in that, if you cannot make that push to compete on the market, you cannot make that last push necessary to compete with them on the pitch. Arsenal do not want to lose out on an incredibly valuable target – a perfect fit for the biggest need in the squad – to a direct title rival and watch that title rival become even more dominant in the most important area of the pitch.
Making the statement that they are willing to spend on par with their top competitor for the exact right target is important. This is not the case of Arsenal overspending beyond market value for a superfluous player or getting into an ego-stroking transfer battle that leads to them overpaying (as rivals Chelsea did multiple times).
No, this is the case of Arsenal putting their foot down and making a reasonable purchase for an elite target, opening their pocketbooks for a player they simply needed more than City did. Because City already have Rodri (and John Stones). Meanwhile, Arteta needed a world-class anchor of his own.
