By Bonface Mulyungi
Mikel Arteta has opened up on two pivotal Arsenal transfers following their Premier League triumph, admitting going after David Raya was “difficult to explain” to the club’s board while bringing in Declan Rice “sent a message” to rivals.
Arsenal clinched their first title in 22 years last week, with 2023 recruits Raya and Rice both key members of a squad Arteta has rebuilt over seven seasons in charge.
In Raya’s case, his signing — initially on loan — from Brentford, was seen as controversial as Arsenal already had an established No. 1 in Aaron Ramsdale, who started the season as the first-choice goalkeeper.
But Raya eventually got his chance and hasn’t looked back, signing permanently the following season and claiming the Golden Glove in each of the past three campaigns, while Ramsdale signed for Southampton in 2024 before joining Newcastle on loan this year.
“That’s a good example of what a manager needs,” Arteta said on the signing of Raya on The Overlap.
“So I was very convinced that we had to make a change. Not because Aaron didn’t have the quality, because I believed to go to the next level that we needed a different profile of goalkeeper.
“It was very difficult to explain, difficult to explain upstairs, externally. It could maybe not make sense. That’s when you need a sporting director, in this case Edu to say, ‘Mikel, are you 100% sure?’
“I went through it with him again and again. ‘You know you’re going to have an issue.’ I know. ‘Mikel, you’re going to expose yourself.’ I know. ‘You really want to do this?’ Yes, please do.
“Edu really convinced the board because they need to be convinced and to understand. It’s not, ‘Mikel says this, OK let’s do it.’ It doesn’t work like this.
“And then it has to work. And then Inaki [Cana, goalkeeping coach] played a pivotal role because he knew him from Brentford and many years.
“I wasn’t sure if it was going to work or not but [I knew] David is going to present himself and dedicate himself to the cause and he’s going to be an incredible ambassador for the club. I was sure.”
Arteta also spoke glowingly abut Rice, who joined for a club-record £100 million ($131m) plus £5m ($6.5m) in add-ons that same summer. Rice was also heavily linked with Manchester City.
“It was a big moment. We are constantly sending messages, whether we want or not. To the people in the organisation, to the supporters, to our opponents. And that was a strong message.
“[It said] we are here to go another level, we are on another level financially, we are on another level with ambition of the players we recruited, the profile of the players. And I think a big club needs to make that sort of statement.”
Arsenal face Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League this Saturday.
