Roy Keane believes Arsenal ‘paid way too much’ for Declan Rice and has questioned the club’s decision to spend £105m on the midfielder.
Rice has become Arsenal’s club-record signing after completing a big-money move from West Ham and impressed on debut as the Gunners beat Manchester City to win the Community Shield on Sunday.
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The 24-year-old has become the most expensive English footballer of all time, though Keane has questioned the fee involved. The Irishman believes Rice has the attributes to improve Arsenal, but has challenged the England international to take his game to the next level in north London.
“He’s obviously going to be surrounded by better players, different demands if he’s going to play a little bit higher up the pitch,” the former Manchester United captain told ITV ahead of the Community Shield at Wembley.
“He definitely has that quality in terms of adding more goals. He’s got that physical strength, he can get in the box.
“But they’ve obviously paid way too much for him. He’s not worth over £100 million, Declan Rice.
“You can say that about a lot of players, I agree. But we’ll find out in the next year or two how good Declan is.
“He turns up every week, he’s a big strong boy – again, we talk about that physicality, they’ve lacked that the last month or two. Has he got that real top quality in terms of seeing a pass and getting nine or ten goals? We’ll soon find out.”
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