Declan Rice would be Arsenal's most significant transfer in a generation: What does he bring to the Emirates?

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Since the day that Arsene Wenger snared the club captain of his greatest rival, Arsenal have broken their transfer record on six occasions, signed seven players for fees in excess of £40 million, and acquired a PFA Players' Player of the Year. But, not since their former manager paraded a stunned Sol Campbell in front of a two man press pack that had decamped to Hertfordshire to see a backup goalkeeper unveiled, have Arsenal made quite such a profound addition to their squad as Declan Rice would be.

That's right, even more so than Mesut Ozil. Redolent of a new era as that deal felt at the time, Arsenal were still taking the scraps from the table of the European elite, as they would do with Alexis Sanchez the following summer. Acquiring Rice is something altogether different.

How Arsenal enticed Rice

Here is a player that was coveted by the richest clubs in England and on the continent, where Bayern Munich hoped they might be able to lure him away from the Premier League. Arsenal faced them all down. Their pitch seems to have been the most persuasive, and for all that Manchester City concluded that the money had got too rich for them -- as it did with Jorginho, Harry Maguire and Marc Cucurella -- it was apparent from the moment they entered West Ham's informal auction that they were playing catch up.

For more than six months, Arsenal have been working to convince Rice. They did not have to try all that hard. Sources close to West Ham say their club captain privately spoke about the Gunners in glowing terms, particularly in the days after the Boxing Day match that Mikel Arteta's side won 3-1. He was "stunned" by the speed at which something special was coalescing at the Emirates Stadium. As the time comes to officially make the move, it of course matters to him and his young family that they were able to stay put in London, but this is not just a marriage of geographical convenience.

One of the Premier League's outstanding prospects, an established performer with room to grow, was ready to take the next step in his career. He's set to chose to do so in north London. It has been a long time indeed since that has been the case.

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Rice is used to facing pressure

That Rice's probable arrival is such a status play for Arsenal will only serve to increase the pressure on the new man, the most expensive British footballer in history, the £100 million guaranteed level the price that City paid for Jack Grealish in 2021 but with a further £5 million in achievable add ons. He may yet be eclipsed by Jude Bellingham, Real Madrid are paying an initial £88.5 million but could end up giving Borussia Dortmund £115 million, but Premier League eyes will be fixed on the new man at the Emirates Stadium.

Pressure is something Rice is firmly accustomed to. At 21 years of age, he was tasked with captaining relegation-threatened West Ham against the side who had released him for being too slight as a teen, Chelsea. The pressure did not inhibit Rice, who had "always wanted to be a captain." He delivered the proto-captain's performance, not flawless but responding to every setback with composure and authority as David Moyes' side earned a 3-2 victory. They and Rice had momentum, a club insider at the time describing it as a match where he showed "an ability to drive a team, grabbing a game and saying that's mine."

In the years to come, Rice would continually prove himself to be a man for the biggest occasion, delivering some of his best performances in West Ham's runs first to the Europa League semifinal and then to glory in the Conference League. His nine figure price tag will hang heavily, but surely no more than the hopes and dreams of a fanbase who had not seen their skipper lift silverware in 42 years.

If anyone knows the pressure that comes with leading West Ham on the biggest stage, it is CBS Sports analyst Nigel Reo-Coker, who came within a few seconds of lifting the FA Cup in 2006 before Steven Gerrard did, well, Steven Gerrard things. A decade later he was back at his former club, training with the youth team as his own career wound down. It swiftly became apparent he was in the presence of a special talent.

"For me Declan has all the attributes. He has what it takes, he's a phenomenal player, a generational talent," says Reo-Coker. "I knew this was a kid who could have played in our generation, his generation and future generations because he's a special talent. It was the complete package. You saw the quality in his football, his football intelligence, his personality and character. He had everything it takes to be successful.

"He was and is an outlier talent. When you've studied the game, you just know that this kid is something special. After training two or three minutes, I spoke to one of the coaches and said 'who's that lad'. Declan was the U23s captain at the time and I said 'he should be in the first team'. The rest is history."

Rice ensured his place in West Ham folklore in Prague, joining Bobby Moore and Billy Bonds as the only skippers to have raised major trophies during their time at east London. For those who saw him grow over the nine years since he was released from Chelsea, Rice's place in their affections was long since established. Those who know him well speak of a infectious presence whose effervescence brought together the groupings that emerged in any group. After training, Rice would be known to spend hours chatting with colleagues from other departments. When someone has to front up after a bad result, the 24-year-old is one of the few who will do so proactively (that quality is certainly one Arsenal will be short on when Granit Xhaka departs).

From the moment he broke into the first team, West Ham sources viewed him as "a leader in waiting." Rice absorbed captaincy lessons from veteran Mark Noble in the knowledge that he would almost certainly take the armband off him. For so many others succeeding the man they call "Mr. West Ham" might have been the cause of jitters, Rice was determined to learn what he could.

Rice brings an all-around game on the field

His development as a person is comparable with that of Rice the player. As he himself put it in the spring of 2021, "I just think that every season I go into it with the mentality that I need to go up another level from the last and I know I've got another two or three levels in me." The player who got his first shot as a scrawny 18-year-old needed to bulk up if he was to bully opposing attackers. He now ranks in the Premier League's top 6 midfielders in terms of how infrequently they lose challenges, vastly outperforming the likes of Casemiro, Thomas Partey and Rodri.

His defensive instincts hardly needed any sharpening, but this season he ranks in the Premier League's 10 best midfielders for: ball recoveries, possession won in the defensive third, possession won in the attacking third and interceptions. To that base level of off ball excellence, Rice has continually added new facets. One of the first to shine through was the quality to drive beyond his opponent. Last season he ranked in the Premier League's top 10 for carries into the final third, ahead of him were the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Kaoru Mitoma and future-teammate Bukayo Saka. There is still work to be done on Rice's passing, but even that has come on leaps and bounds. In the 2020-21 season he averaged 5.3 progressive passes per 90 minutes, the next year that skyrocketed to 7.2.

What Rice has morphed into then, is a top tier defensive midfielder with a rapidly improving on ball game. He could change yet further. Arsenal's vision for him was to succeed Partey, Manchester City were said to view him as a potential replacement for Ilkay Gundogan, occupying more advanced areas of the pitch. That might appear a stretch, but a player with such determination to develop might well have made good on it. Reo-Coker says. "When you look at Declan's qualities, it reminds me when Pep starts talking about Bernardo Silva. When Pep says [Bernardo] can play multiple positions it's because he's a student of the game.

"I'd say the same about Declan Rice. There are these people like him who know, or can learn, how to play other positions because of the football intelligence they have." It is that vision of the game which Arteta, Guardiola, Thomas Tuchel and so many other top coaches are enamored with. At just 24 years of age you can place him against the best in his position and at the very least he profiles favorably, a notable achievement considering those around him don't have the spectacular quality of Martin Odegaard or De Bruyne. This is the captain of a Premier League club, a European trophy winner to boot, who has played over 200 top flight games but seems to always be pushing beyond the limits of what might be expected of him.

These players don't sign for Arsenal. At least they didn't.