Arteta has signed until 2030, and Declan Rice is close to a new Arsenal deal worth around £350,000 a week
BBC Sport says talks over a new long-term contract are at an advanced stage, and the deal would put Rice level with Bukayo Saka as Arsenal’s top earner.
Oct 8, 2026
Declan Rice is close to signing a new long-term contract at Arsenal, BBC Sport reported on Wednesday, hours after Mikel Arteta had signed his own. Talks have reached an advanced stage, and the deal would lift Rice from about £240,000 a week to around £350,000, level with Bukayo Saka at the top of the club’s wage bill.
Rice is not short of time on his current deal. It runs until the summer of 2028, with a club option for another year. Arsenal want him tied down well beyond that anyway, and it is easy to see why.
Arsenal’s £105 million man
Arsenal paid West Ham a club-record £105 million for Rice in July 2023. Three seasons later they were Premier League champions for the first time in 22 years, and he was at the centre of it. He has made 165 appearances for the club and is 27, which puts the new contract squarely across his best years rather than past them.
The BBC first reported the negotiations in March, so this has been building for a while. Arsenal confirmed on Wednesday that Arteta has signed a four-year contract that runs to 2030, with his coaching staff also staying on for four more years. Saka signed a five-year deal through 2031 back in February. Rice would be the third big piece locked in within a year.
“It’s a privilege to commit my future to the club and to continue to work with exceptional people who want the best for Arsenal,” Arteta said when his deal was announced.
Back for Leeds on Saturday
Rice was not part of England’s Nations League games this month. He has 80 caps, and Thomas Tuchel has called him “one of the very best midfielders in Europe”, but after starting every Premier League game this season he was given a rest through the international window. The BBC says he is expected to feature when Leeds visit the Emirates on Saturday, 10 October (12:30 UK time, 5pm IST).
That is a sharper test than it looks on paper. Daniel Farke’s Leeds have won two and drawn three of their first five league games, their first unbeaten five-game start in the Premier League since 2001-02. Arsenal will want their best midfielder on the pitch, and if the paperwork is done by then, on a new contract too.
Three long contracts in eight months says plenty about where Arsenal think they are. The champions are trying to keep the team that won it together, and of all of them, Rice is the one I’d say they could least afford to lose.