Report: Mikel Arteta is already planning for ‘underrated’ PL player to be in Arsenal’s team next season

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If you watched the All Or Nothing Arsenal documentary last season you’ll know just how important forward-planning is at The Emirates.

Indeed, inside Edu’s office there is a huge whiteboard with names on them indicating the first-choice players in each position this season, next season and so on and so forth.

During that documentary, a few names were blurred out so that we couldn’t see who Arsenal’s transfer targets for the future may be, but now, it appears we do know one name who will be on that board for next season – Declan Rice.

According to The Independent, Mikel Arteta is already planning for Rice’s arrival in north London.

The so-called ‘underrated’ midfielder is reportedly the Gunners’ top target heading into the summer transfer window and Arteta is apparently already making plans for when he is an Arsenal player.

It sounds as though the Gunners are incredibly confident of signing Rice at this point, and, to be honest, they should be.

The midfielder is apparently very keen for his next move to be within London, and, realistically, Arsenal are the only team who can lure Rice at this point.

Chelsea, barring a miracle, won’t be playing in the Champions League next season, Tottenham are an absolute mess at the moment, while the likes of Fulham, Brentford and Crystal Palace wouldn’t even be considered by Rice.

Of course, things don’t always go to plan in the transfer window. We’re sure that Arteta already had a plan in place for Mykhaylo Mudryk in January, but, as we all know, that plan had to be ditched when Chelsea came in.

Arsenal seem to genuinely think they’ll be getting Rice, and it will be interesting to see what plan Arteta has in mind for the 24-year-old.