‘Very good player’ – Erik ten Hag waxes lyrical over Arsenal star Declan Rice

Erik ten Hag admits Declan Rice “would absolutely fit in” at Manchester United.

Arsenal signed Rice for £105 million in the summer while United looked at moving for him before opting to sign Mason Mount from Chelsea. I think, a year on from then, most United fans would prefer to see Rice in our midfield over Mount. At least the former West Ham ace is available most weeks.

“He is a very good player and he would absolutely have fit in here,” Ten Hag said, as per the Manchester Evening News.

“But it is not I am not happy with Mason. I am very happy with Mason and he is also a very robust player.

“You see in his profile: in his last four seasons – this is the fifth – in the last four seasons he only had a small issue at the end of his Chelsea career. Before that, he played almost all the games, three seasons after each other, with three days turnaround, he always played.

“It is really bad luck what happened and he is a really good player. We really missed him, he could have had a contribution to our levels.”

United sold the line that they were getting Mount at a good price – £60m because the player had entered the final year of his contract at Chelsea. Twelve months on and I don’t think they would get away with pushing such a PR line because Mount has been a disappointment thus far. Ten Hag told reporters this afternoon that the midfielder had sustained a fresh injury and is out of action again.

Mount has only made 19 appearances this season and made his first Premier League start in seven months in the 4-0 defeat at Crystal Palace on Monday.