Now the dust has settled on Declan Rice and his £105m move the Emirates Stadium, and in the process setting a new record for a British player. It is just shy of the most expensive signing by a Premier League team, when Chelsea paid £105.6m for Argentina’s World Cup winner Enzo Fernandez in January.
The £105m fee is an initial £100m with a further £5m of potential add-ons, depending on how successful Arsenal are whilst Rice is at the club.
The ex-West Ham man will be getting a massive rise in his wages too. He was paid only £60,000 per week at West Ham, a generous wage for most but dwarfed by the likes of Manchester United’s Casemiro who earns £350,000 per week, , Erling Haaland (£375,000) and Kevin De Bruyne (£400,000)
Rice also turned down a new contract reportedly worth around £200,000 per week to try and keep him at the club and is now set to earn £250,000 per week at Arsenal. That will see him vastly increase his annual salary from around £3m to £13m. He will be the Gooners second highest paid player behind the Brazilian forward Gabriel Jesus (£265,000).
Not that I begrudge the man, ( and I know the argument about how short a footballers career is) but to give you some idea of the crazy money involved; his new £250,000-a-week salary works out at £36,000 per day, and £1,488 per hour. That’s not just during the hours of daylight, but every hour , even when he’s sleeping.!
I know we are living in different times now, but how much did you think the peerless Bobby Moore took home per week whilst in his prime?
£80, that’s right £80 !
Even when adjusted for inflation, it is only £1,800 per week
He was offered a wage of £200,000 not £100,000 here but refused that.
Bobby Moore played in a vastly different era for football. The Premier League has progressively ruined everything over the past 30 years and will continue to do so. My respect for Declan Rice is immense – it has never been about the money for him.
Bobby Moore was the sole reason I became a West Ham supporter and I think Arsenal will be my ‘second team’ whilst Declan is there. I can’t say that would be true if he’d signed for Tottenham or Chelsea!