'No one's talking about his price tag' - Rio raves about Arsenal star

Stuart Telford

• 10 Oct 2023 12:01 BST
• 3 min read

Arsenal's summer transfer business might have been a mixed bag but Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand has been impressed by Declan Rice.

Rice joined Arsenal from West Ham in a £105 million deal in July, which represented a transfer record for both clubs, and his hit the ground running at the Emirates.

Jurrien Timber was injured 50 minutes into his Premier League career following his €40m (£34.6m) arrival from Ajax, while Kai Havertz, a £65m signing from Chelsea, took 10 competitive games to open his account - and even that was a sympathy penalty against Bournemouth.

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But Rice has had no such trouble, and put in another assured display as Arsenal beat champions Manchester City 1-0 on Sunday to move up to second in the Premier League behind North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur on goals scored alone.

"You know what, I texted Declan this morning and just said [it's] testament to you that no one's talking about the price tag," Ferdinand told his YouTube channel FIVE of the British joint-record transfer.

"And his response was absolutely bang on. Declan said: 'come on, I was doing the same thing at West Ham, Ri, and no one wanted to speak about it.' It's true. What I said about Jude Bellingham before, transferring the level of performance and impact on your team, he's transferred that to Arsenal."

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Rice is currently valued at €88.4m (£76.4m) per FootballTransfers' in-house algorithm. Arsenal may have paid significantly more but the England midfielder is already making good on that.

Bellingham has done similar with Real Madrid following his €103m move from Borussia Dortmund, hitting 10 goals from 10 games in all competitions so far. That the pair often start together for England augurs well for the Three Lions indeed.