The Athletic FC: Arsenal’s £100m man Rice explains his game; behind the scenes at NBC

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We have a killer exclusive for you. Declan Rice on tactics, finding his depth and picking Arsenal over Manchester City. His game, his words.

Also: Inside NBC, where Ted Lasso was born and Premier League TV rights went wild.

Reheating Rice: How £105m man got up to speed at Arsenal

The most expensive British player of all time is not clear-cut. Declan Rice cost Arsenal more up front than Jude Bellingham, but Bellingham’s final fee will be higher if he activates add-ons at Real Madrid.

It’s all semantics. The point here is that Rice was gold-plated: an Arsenal transfer record at £100m ($125m) when they signed him from West Ham United last July.

You’ll not find many more perfectly judged pieces of recruitment. You would reasonably assume that £100m buys the finished article. Spend £100m on a house and you don’t expect so be repainting it as you move in.

But Rice has evolved markedly since leaving West Ham and this outstanding tactical interview with him, written by The Athletic’s Stuart James, is on another level in terms of explaining how. If you want to know what makes Rice tick, you’ll find it here in his own words.

Mikel Arteta was hardly starting from scratch with him — there was no better English No 6 on the market last summer — but Rice’s analysis of how he got to grips with Arsenal’s system underlines the fact that even a £100m signing can be a development project.

Stuart’s exclusive is flooded with great quotes, but this one about a pre-season friendly against Manchester United, one of Rice’s first Arsenal appearances, is incredibly honest: “You could just see I was way out of my depth.”

Finding a ‘good height’

At The Athletic, we’ve been publishing ‘My Game in My Word’ articles since we launched. I wrote one in 2020 with Kalvin Phillips, one of Rice’s England team-mates, and you never get closer to seeing the game through a footballer’s eyes.

Two things I noticed with Phillips, which are also apparent with Rice: the amount of tactical preparation players do these days is staggering. And when you run Rice or Phillips through video clips of them playing, they’ll be more interested in what they did wrong than what they did right.

It’s the mark of a top-level athlete — the urge to improve constantly.

Between them, Rice and Arteta have made him a precise fit for Arsenal’s midfield three. You’ll find out what Arteta means when he talks about “a good height” for a midfielder and a “same side” approach to attacking. You’ll learn about how Rice presses, beats the press, shoots and judges that trademark tackle on one knee.

The change in his long diagonal passing (below) is especially remarkable — a constant at West Ham, but hardly needed with Arsenal.

All in all, you come away realising just how split-second tactical thought is. The margin for error? Zero.

Arsenal project seemed ‘more exciting’

Before he joined Arsenal, Rice was heavily linked to treble-winning Manchester City. He told Stuart he took the London move because “this project seemed more exciting”.

It’s a bold comment and in the next few weeks, we’ll find out more if Rice called it right. He could finish it with Arsenal as Premier League champions and him as player of the year. At which point, a £100m signing becomes a snip.

Inside NBC: Premier League rights and spawning Ted Lasso

What links Ted Lasso, actor Anne Hathaway and Arsenal forward Leandro Trossard?

The answer is Adam Crafton’s dive inside the engine room of NBC, one of the broadcasters behind the explosion of Premier League interest in the U.S.

A decade is a long time in football, clearly. NBC’s first deal for Premier League rights, struck in 2013, cost $83m (£66m) a season. The contract it replaced, held by ESPN, was a mere $27m (£21.5m).

Now, the company sits on a six-year agreement worth $2.7bn (£2.2bn). The value of these rights is only going up — and, predictably, NBC is on the side of the fence which wants official European club games to be staged in the U.S.

The astonishing thing is that, at the outset, people at NBC had to make the case for them. It’s as if no one appreciated how much money the Premier League could harvest in the States. Safe to say the penny has dropped.

As a result, a lot of people have done well. England’s clubs are coining it. NBC spawned Ted Lasso (I’m not a fan but you can’t argue with raw viewing figures). Hathaway, an Arsenal fan, got a video message from Trossard. Happy days.

Can you stop Real Madrid?

The temptation in the Champions League’s last eight was to see Manchester City versus Real Madrid as a de facto final. They were good enough to stop each other. Who was stopping the winner?

No one, most likely, but Bayern Munich are next with the task of figuring Real out. It’s the start of the semi-finals tonight — the first leg in Germany — and you don’t envy Thomas Tuchel in trying to find a game plan that works.

Bayern are susceptible to goals scored via fast breaks — one of Real’s strengths. Tuchel depends on the individual flair of his front four but Real are so sound defensively. The decisive factor might be how Bayern’s two holding midfielders protect the centre of the pitch.

Real are the Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez of this tie, the middleweight king. Bayern, as they proved in their quarter-final against Arsenal, have a puncher’s chance. Quality contests can be made of this, even if I know where my money lies. Zero members of our Totally Football Podcast fancy Bayern, if that’s a clue.

📺 Bayern Munich v Real Madrid, 3pm ET / 8pm UK, Paramount+ / TNT Sports 1. LIVE blog.

Mare Stegen: Lewandowski saves Barca blushes

Barcelona’s season is done — as proven by Marc-Andre ter Stegen, shipping a goal like this.

What is Marc-Andre ter Stegen trying to do here?

The Barcelona goalkeeper gifts Valencia an equaliser.

🎥 @PremSportsTVpic.twitter.com/70l4fAJYkf

— The Athletic | Football (@TheAthleticFC) April 29, 2024

(Video can be watched in America, here)

The goalkeeper got away with it in a 4-2 win over Valencia last night and if ever there’s a time to throw a lazy blunder in, the dead-rubber stage of the year is definitely it.

No such messing by Robert Lewandowski, who picked up a hat-trick. He says he’s staying at Camp Nou. Barca are giving the impression that they wouldn’t mind getting shot of his salary.

Around The Athletic FC: The ‘ugly side of football’

• An ex-Chelsea director of football, a main witness who didn’t show up and an agent cleared of making threats over a transfer involving West Ham’s Kurt Zouma. This was some court case showing the ‘ugly side of football’.
• Forest Green Rovers were the first club to be certified as carbon neutral by the United Nations. For a time, their results made waves too. Two relegations have soured the green dream.
• Manchester United are open to selling Marcus Rashford. And just about anyone, for the right price.
• It’s got the 2026 Men’s World Cup but the U.S. won’t be hosting the 2027 Women’s version.

(Photo: Clive Rose/Getty Images)