Pep Guardiola planned to change Declan Rice’s position had Manchester City signed the England international.
That’s according to journalist Sam Lee, who said that the City boss had big plans for the former West Ham midfielder.
Rice completed a £105m move to Arsenal last week, breaking the English transfer record.
City had an offer of £80m plus £10m in add-ons rejected last month, and pulled out of the race to sign Rice when West Ham refused to lower their asking price.
Guardiola had big plans
Pep Guardiola really wanted City to sign Rice, the 24-year-old being one of three players the manager asked the club to recruit over the summer.
Part of the reason why Guardiola was so keen was that he believed Rice has the qualities to evolve his game and become more of an attacking midfielder.
Speaking on The Athletic Football Podcast, City correspondent Sam Lee explained Guardiola’s thinking.
“Guardiola kind of saw him [Rice] as someone who can play everywhere,” Lee said.
“A lot of people thought ‘he’s not going to play instead of Rodri’ [as a number six].
“City also saw him as someone who can play more box-to-box, we’ve seen that watching him at West Ham over the years.
“It was suggested to me that he could do the No. 10 stuff, the final third stuff, he could add goals to his game as well. That’s how Guardiola and City saw him.”
City signed Croatian midfielder Mateo Kovacic early in the transfer window as a replacement for Ilkay Gundogan, but their view of Rice was different.
City wanted Rice because of his quality and potential, not because they particularly wanted another midfielder.
As a result, there is no alternative target to sign Rice, with City opting to double down on their efforts to keep Bernardo Silva at the club.
