Mikel Arteta has got his man after Arsenal announced the transfer of West Ham captain Declan Rice on Saturday in a move that smashed the Gunners club record transfer fee.
The North London club agreed an eye-catching £105million transfer fee to land the England international. For Arteta, the signing was fundamental – Rice was the player he had identified as ideal to his system and if the club had to break records to land them, then so be it.
Arsenal are believed to have handed the 24-year-old a contract worth £240,000 weekly salary as they believe he can be the player that elevates their ambitions from a title contender into winners. The move comes after Kai Havertz arrived from Chelsea and Jurrien Timber joined from Ajax.
As with all top clubs, the Gunners will have certain rules and structures internally in how the club is run. Many of these are significant and are a fundamental part of success on the pitch, while others are more symbolic and part of long-running traditions.
One of those appears to be the distribution of shirt numbers at the club – with senior players instructed to take traditional lower numbers, leaving those outside the top 30 shirt numbers to youth-team players and those on the fringes of the first-team squad.
This was explained in 2020 by Alex Iwobi, who had emerged through the club’s youth ranks and broke into the first-team plans. The Nigerian international opened up on how his change from No.45 to No.17 was at the behest of his club and the change of status.
Arsenal handed Rice the No.41 kit at his requestHave Your Say! Is Arsenal signing the Rice the biggest transfer of the summer? Tell us what you think here.
Speaking on Instagram live three years ago, Iwobi explained: "I actually loved Big 45 when I came into the scene in the first place, it was a youth team number at Arsenal but they told me to change to a senior number, so the next available that was 17.
"Ever since then, it’s been that number and you’ve got to love it."
Yet this rule does not appear to have been applied to Rice, who has been handed the No.41 shirt at the club – not traditionally associated with a first-team Arsenal player. It was the number adorned on his Hammers shirt and Arsenal have compromised to allow the 24-year-old the number he wants.
Rice’s shirt number may appear a little unusual, but he explained to Gary Neville on The Overlap why he had stuck with the number past his youth-team days: "It was just a number I was given in the academy by the kitman, Jamo. When you're in the U23s, you've obviously got the first-team squad numbers and then it starts to get to the higher numbers when you're in the U23s.
"I remember when I went to Seattle on my first trip with the first team, I just got given 41 and you know what, it's stayed with me since. To be honest with you, I've been having this conversation with my Dad, regardless of what happens in my career, I think I might stay with the 41.
"'Rice 41' has a nice ring to it and I've grown up playing in it. I'm a bit superstitious with things like that - I don't know whether if I change to a new number, it would hamper my performances. I don't know. I just think sometimes about a couple of things like that."
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