Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice claims he has been ‘blown away’ by Gunners boss Mikel Arteta and the transformative effect he has had on the club since taking over.
Having guided Arsenal to FA Cup glory in 2020 only a few months after taking over from Unai Emery, Arteta came under fire for failing to immediately kick on in the Premier League and recording an eighth place finish in his first full season in charge.
His team subsequently started the 2021/22 campaign with three straight defeats and didn’t climb into the top half of the table until well into October. Six defeats in their final 12 games also cost the club a return to the Champions League.
But Arteta, mentored by Pep Guardiola was working on a bigger project in tandem with sporting director Edu to build a brighter future, which took hold in 2022/23. Arsenal’s title challenge took most by surprise, only falling away at the very end under pressure from a Manchester City side that went on to complete the Treble, only the second English team to do so.
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Rice, a £105m British record signing, has explained that he already had an idea about what had been going on behind the scenes from Arsenal players who were in the England squad. But their accounts of Arteta were still nothing like the reality that he then encountered upon joining.
“Speaking to a few of the lads at England, just asking what the general setup is like, what the manager is like, the first thing they all said was how much they improved,” Rice told the Telegraph.
“When you hear that without seeing it, you think ‘that is interesting’. But when you get here and you see how he actually is, it is mindboggling.
“Genuinely, in the last 10 days I have been blown away by how he is constantly thinking about football, how he is so oriented to win. How everyone is all in the same direction to win, to be together.”
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On this edition of The Chronicles of a Gooner, part of the 90min podcast network, Harry Symeou discussess reports of adeal being close for Gremio’s Bitello, Declan Rice’s interview & the latest on Mohammed Kudus. If you can’t see this embed, click here to listen to the podcast!
