‘Another advantage’: Arsenal think their £70m transfer target really wants to play for Mikel Arteta – journalist

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Declan Rice is reportedly Arsenal’s top transfer target heading into the summer.

According to The Times, Rice is very high on Arsenal’s list heading into the summer transfer window, and it sounds as though the Gunners are quietly confident of getting this one over the line.

Indeed, according to Ben Jacobs, speaking on The Done Deal Show, Arsenal are calm about the Rice situation and they believe they have an advantage over their rivals for a few reasons.

Interestingly, Jacobs says that Arsenal believe that Rice is really buying into Mikel Arteta and the style he is implementing at Arsenal, which is, of course, a huge boost.

Rice loves Arteta

Jacobs shared what he knows about Rice.

“Arsenal are quite calm on the Declan Rice situation, but it has always been quite an open race. We warp things because there was this feeling that Chelsea were frontrunners and Arsenal have overtaken them and vice versa,” Jacobs said.

“Nothing was really possible or likely last summer unless someone chose to pay ridiculous money. Everyone has always known Rice are resigned to losing Rice this summer. Arsenal’s confidence comes from two things. One, they feel that Declan Rice buys into Arteta and his style and two, and this benefits Chelsea as well, Rice would ideally like to play in London. Add in the fact that Arsenal will have Champions League football and there’s another advantage there.”

Manager pull

The best managers in world football often have this aura surrounding them that leads to top-class players wanting to sign for them,

For years we’ve seen players say how excited they are to learn from the likes of Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Jose Mourinho, but now, Arteta is putting himself amongst that group.

Indeed, the likes of Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko joined Arsenal due to Arteta’s pull, and now, Rice could seemingly do the same.

Arteta is not just a great coach for Arsenal, he’s a great weapon in the transfer market too.