England manager Thomas Tuchel reportedly wanted Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice at his former club Bayern Munich.
The German tactician will now get the chance to work with Rice as he prepares for the role of England manager, having recently replaced Gareth Southgate in charge of the Three Lions.
According to Sport Bild, Tuchel sees Rice as one of his most important players for England, along with Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham, and it makes sense that the 25-year-old could have been seen as an ideal addition at the Allianz Arena.
Rice has been a world class performer for some time now, becoming an important player for Arsenal after previously showing what he’s capable of at former club West Ham, as well as in over 60 caps for his country.
Declan Rice transfer was requested by Thomas Tuchel
Arsenal fans will be glad they were able to win the race against Bayern for Rice, who will surely have a huge part to play in their future success.
The England international has developed well under Mikel Arteta, though one imagines he’ll also benefit from being coached by Tuchel at international level.
It would have been interesting to see Rice alongside his fellow England teammate Kane at Bayern, but now we’ll never know how well that could’ve worked out.
Tuchel, however, can perhaps offer some glimmer of what that would’ve looked like as he uses both players for England, while he also has plenty of other exciting talents at his disposal.
Even though his predecessor Southgate did well to get a previously under-achieving nation to a couple of finals, there’s also the sense that he didn’t quite make the most out of a generation of players full of more quality than we’ve seen in the past.
It will be interesting to see if Tuchel can get more out of these players, and perhaps make some smarter selection decisions – such as not leaving Cole Palmer out of the team for virtually an entire tournament!