Arsenal wasted £105m on Rice. Clearly. Obviously

Tell me again how we ruined the transfer market and inflated transfer fees when we signed Declan Rice. The man has been on a rampage since he’s joined the club, earning numerous MOTM ratings in our post-match polls. He’s been a wrecking-ball and a rampart, both destroying opposition defenses as well as repelling opposition attacks. If anyone wants to talk about ruining the transfer market and inflating transfer fees, I’d suggest they ring up Todd Boehly. More on that in a moment.

Okay, so keeping in mind that these post-match ratings polls are hardly scientific, it’s still notable that Rice earned an 8.53 rating while commandeering 57.3% of the MOTM vote. The lad’s still adjusting to a new role at a new club and has had to deal with a rotating cast of characters around him, the most-recent iteration having Trossard playing ahead of Zinchenko on the left—hardly the kind of rear-guard that sends tremors down the spines of their opposites. Indeed, Brentford found a fair amount of joy down our left side, not the least of which was when Yoane Wissa closed him down, leading to a scramble in front of goal that culminated in none other than Rice making a goal-line clearance. We’ll revisit Ramsdale’s role another day; for now, it’s all about RIce.

At this point, it doesn’t seem like there’s anything Rice can’t or won’t do. In Partey’s absence, Rice is being asked to to play somewhere between a 6 and and 8, and, with Trossard and Ødegaard as his midfield partners, he had much more to do defensively even if it was “only” Brentford. Lad’s just 24.

 His best football is still ahead of him, and his move to this club—if I may speak objectively here—can only reap immeasurable rewards. We’ve hungered for a dominant, physical midfielder for years if not decades, and Rice, even if he’s not kind the rampaging, box-to-box force some of us might crave. He might not quite be Vieira’s Heir, but he’s marshalling the midfield at a level that make the likes of Rodri blush.

If he keeps delivering performances at this level—and, yes, it was “just” Brentford—we should stop hearing talk of how we wasted £105m on him. 

I wonder how Caicedo, signed on a fee that could reach £115m, is being discussed. Something tells me that Chelsea might be being held to a different standard.One could toss off any number of other names whose fees seem wasteful, but I won’t wallow. Those willing to wallow might mention Mudryk, Antony, Richarlison, to name a few, but, again, I’m not that kind of correspondent. Suffice it to say that Rice might just have taken a few steps toward justifying that “outrageous” transfer fee with his performances on the pitch—almost as if he’s worth every pound we’ve paid and then some.