Arsenal had a plan to pair Declan Rice with another big player in their midfield in 2023.
The Gunners’ recruitment has been incredible over the last few years. Mikel Arteta and Edu Gaspar have done a phenomenal job, even though they haven’t always got the players they wanted.
Arsenal had a very exciting plan for their midfield in 2023, but that, sadly for them, did not materialise. Journalist Charles Watts has shared what really happened.
Arsenal had a Moises Caicedo plan before they signed Declan Rice
Arsenal were on the market for a new midfielder almost a year before they signed Declan Rice.
The Gunners tried really hard to get a midfielder in the summer of 2022, but no move materialised. Then, they signed Jorginho from Chelsea in the following January.
Before that happened, Mikel Arteta had formulated a big plan to take Arsenal to a whole new level.
The North Londoners wanted to sign Moises Caicedo, who was still at Brighton and Hove Albion in January 2023. They tabled a few bids too to sign the ‘unbelievable‘ midfielder, but they couldn’t convince the Seagulls to let him go.
Arsenal signed Rice six months later, in the same window in which Chelsea sealed a deal for Caicedo for a British record fee of £115 million (BBC).
Charles Watts has now revealed that Rice wasn’t a big-money alternative to Caicedo – Arteta’s original plan was to sign both players and pair them up in the middle of Arsenal’s midfield.
That, unfortunately for them, proved to be impossible in the end.
Watts told CaughtOffside: “Caicedo was a player they really wanted and were willing to pay big money for.
“But they weren’t going to pay what Brighton were asking for so they walked away after seeing multiple bids rejected in January 2023.
“Obviously, they then went and signed Declan Rice the following summer, but as far as I’m aware they still would have gone for the West Ham captain even if they had managed to get Caicedo in the summer.
“The plan was always to try and get both of them, not one.”
READ MORE: Moises Caicedo’s agent on what Arsenal did before he joined Chelsea
How we think Moises Caicedo would’ve fared at Arsenal
Moises Caicedo has struggled at Chelsea.
The Ecuador international was expected by many to hit the ground running at Stamford Bridge, but his performances haven’t even come close to justifying his mammoth price tag.
If Caicedo had joined Arsenal instead, we think he would’ve become a star.
The Gunners are a much more settled side than Chelsea are and Caicedo would’ve had teammates whose quality is much higher than what it is now.
To add to that, the midfielder would’ve had Mikel Arteta as his manager, who has brought out the best in almost every player in Arsenal’s current squad.
Caicedo will never admit it, but we think even he’d privately agree that he would’ve fared much better at Arsenal than he has done at Chelsea so far.