Declan Rice has dubbed Mikel Arteta "magic" ahead of his record-breaking switch to Arsenal which is set to be officially confirmed in a matter of days.
The Gunners have been desperate to land the 24-year-old's signature for months and after two failed bids earlier in the window, a third finally got the job done as West Ham accepted Arsenal's offer of £100million plus £5m in add-ons. There was a brief delay in negotiations as the two clubs tried to reach an agreement regarding the structure of the payment, though that issue has since been resolved.
For a moment, it looked as if Arsenal had lost their grip on Rice when reigning champions Manchester City entered the race and submitted an offer of their own. Pep Guardiola's side are thought to have offered £90m in the form of a £75m fee up front as well as £15m worth of add-ons.
The offer was swiftly rejected by the Hammers, but recent comments from ex-Liverpool ace and Match of the Day regular Danny Murphy seem to suggest that Rice wouldn't have favoured a move to the Etihad anyway.
Speaking on FIVE, Murphy explained how a chance encounter with Rice meant he got an insight into the England international's thoughts on the Arsenal manager. "I’ve got to say, it’s worth saying I saw Dec on Sunday at the cafe by mine. He was outside, I popped out to see him, I was just ordering a full English, actually," Murphy said.
"We were chatting, and he was buzzing. He couldn’t wait to get to Arsenal. He said Arteta was magic when he met him."
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Arteta is believed to view Rice as integral to part of his future plans and has even earmarked the Three Lions ace as a potential future captain of the club. The long-running transfer saga has divided opinion in regards to both where people feel Rice should go and the amount either Arsenal or City should have paid for him.
Gunners icon Ray Parlour however, has claimed that his former side always boasted the advantage over last season's treble winners, purely because of geography. "I think that certain players consider their family life too," he told Mirror Football via JBI Training.
" Declan Rice is obviously very settled in London and wanted to stay in London. Arsenal is the best club for him to join in the capital in terms of challenging for trophies.
"We all know how good Manchester City are and what they achieved last year was magnificent. Moving forward, hopefully, Arsenal, if they can get Declan Rice, that can give them a big push towards winning a trophy next year."
