Rice to leave Arsenal after 44 years at Club

Arsenal Assistant Manager Pat Rice is to leave the Club at the end of the season after a 44-year association with the Gunners.

Rice has a rich history with Arsenal Football Club, having first joined as a youth team player back in 1964. A Northern Ireland international right-back, he was a ‘double’ winner in 1971 and captained the side to FA Cup glory in 1979. In total, Rice made 528 appearances for Arsenal across 14 seasons.

After a spell with Watford between 1980 - 1984, Rice returned to Arsenal as a Youth Team Coach, winning two FA Youth Cups in 1988 and 1994. He took up a senior coaching role when Arsène Wenger joined in 1996.

As Assistant Manager, Rice, 63, has been Arsène Wenger’s right-hand man, helping to guide the Club to seven major honours - three Premier League titles and four FA Cups, including two ‘doubles’ in 1998 and 2002.

Arsène Wenger said: “Pat is a true Arsenal legend and has committed almost his whole life to Arsenal Football Club, which shows huge loyalty and devotion to this Club.

“Pat has been amazing for me over the past 16 years. When I first arrived at Arsenal, Pat was always there and taught me so much about this great club. I will always be indebted to him for his expert insight into Arsenal and football as a whole. On the training pitches and on matchdays, Pat has always been a passionate, loyal and insightful colleague, who we will all miss.

“Thank you Pat, we’ll miss you and all of us wish you and your family the best of health and happiness for the future. Although, we’ll still see Pat a lot, as I know he’s planning to come to all the home matches as a supporter!”

Pat, whose last match as Assistant Manager will be this Sunday against West Brom, last night enjoyed a farewell barbecue with Wenger and the first team squad.

An announcement on his successor will be made in due course.
 
Source: Arsenal.com on 10 May 12

Pat Rice's reaction to the Arsenal 2-1 Olympiacos match

on the performance…
I think in the first 20-25 minutes we were really in it well. After that for about 15-20 minutes we maybe lost our way and they came back into it. Second half we had to knuckle down, fight and get our shape right which I thought we did better in the second half.

on Arsenal's goals…
It is unfortunate we didn't get the third but we also had opportunities on breakaways in the second half. They came, they waited for us, they broke us up in the middle of the park and in fairness they did well. You can't turn around and say we had all of the game because that would be unfair.

Needless to say I think we will be very, very happy with the three points.

on Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain…
He can go inside, he can go outside, he's got that injection of pace and I think what he needs now is to be consistent in his play. I am sure that is something he will be working on because he's certainly not a stupid boy. He has good people around him and they are telling him all the right things.

He is a very confident boy, a strong boy and he listens to what people tell him. I think he makes his own mind up because when you are a professional footballer loads of different coaches tell you lots of different things. What you have to do is pick out the best things that are applicable to you. That is something Alex will no doubt actually do. He is very friendly with Theo and no doubt he will give him the benefit of his experience as well.

From Arsenal supporters' point of view, they are going to be seeing a lot of this boy. Whenever he breaks in permanently he has a big, big challenge to now get in front of Theo. I know that Theo is a very strong-willed guy as well and he won't give in easy. It all bodes well for England anyway.

on a nervous night for himself…
I said before we played Dortmund that it is not the kind of evening I particularly want. It's never actually been an ambition in my career to be a manager. I'm quite happy being a coach. But when decisions go against the manager, which in my personal opinion wasn't right, we have just got to get on with it.

on defensive performance…
I thought that in general they battled very hard. I think that as we went into the second half we were tighter in the second half than we were in the last 20 minutes of the first half. People can have the ball right and left but it wasn't really causing us too many problems. They have actually got a lot of the ball but in actual terms of what Szczesny has had to save I don't think there was all that many chances.

on the goal conceded…
It was soft, yes. From a defender's point of view it was really poor.

on Robin's omission…
Robin's been playing a lot of games lately and it was just a question of Chamakh needing games. We just thought that we would give him a go. You can't say that Marouane didn't try. If he had a little bit more luck he perhaps might have scored a third goal. But you cannot fault him for his work ethic.

on Olympiacos' performance…
I thought Olympiacos played very, very well and whenever we go over there to play, one would like to think we would have qualified.

on whether Oxlade-Chamberlain & Walcott could play together...
What you have to do is see whether the two of them can compliment each other - that is something I don't know, the manager does not know and the England manager does not know either because we have not seen them together.

You can think as much as you like, but until it actually happens you are only formulating an opinion of your own. All good players can play together.

on Tottenham...
That is a completely different ball game at Tottenham The most important thing for us was to win, because it takes us closer to qualifying. We will think more about the Tottenham game when we all get together again on Friday. I am losing track of time - when you get older, that is what happens to you!

Source: Arsenal.com on 28 Sep 11

Pat Rice's reaction to the Borussia Dortmund 1-1 Arsenal match

on whether Arsenal were unfortunate not to win the game…
We battled really hard and we knew it would be a hard, hard game. To be able to defend well is a high-quality skill and that is something all of our players did this evening. I shouldn't think many teams will come to Dortmund and beat them and we were very, very close to doing that.

on Robin van Persie’s goal…
It is nothing unusual to see Robin do something like that. It was a great run from Robin and it was also a terrific ball through [from Theo]. It is unusual to see Robin hit it with his right foot but it proves that he is not just a left-footed footballer.

on the captain’s leadership…
Robin is obviously the Club captain and we encourage him to be verbal both on the park and also off it, especially in the dressing room. He was just asking me one or two things that he thought we could have done better and I was just saying one or two things that we could actually do to make the team better.

on withstanding a lot of first-half Dortmund pressure…
As I said before, to actually defend well is a high-quality skill and our players did it very, very well. Don't forget Dortmund are a really good side, there is no question about that. Would we liked to have won the game? Of course we would, we were so close to it and so very, very near. But the same thing happened to us as when we played Tottenham and the boy [Danny] Rose hit and unbelievable shot from about 35 yards. It was the same this evening. I should imagine that he could try that 25, 30, 40 times and he would hit it over the bar or at the goalkeeper. It was a great goal.

on whether Dortmund’s style made it like playing against Arsenal…
Yeah, very, very much so. Now we know what it is like whenever we are or form! But, as I say, our lads stuck to it well. It was a very hard game, as you could see. When Gervinho went through, the game could have been over if he had stuck it in the back of the net. So, really and truthfully, a point apiece was a good result.

on a strange situation without manager Arsène Wenger…
First of all, it was extremely strange not having the manager next to me because usually he is shouting in my ear: 'why did he do that?' and 'why didn't he do that?'. Did I like it? Not really, no. It has never been one of my ambitions to be the manager of a football club. It is very strange. It is too stressful for me.

on two positive results after a difficult start to the season…
Very much so. It seems, especially the game on Saturday, it seemed to me personally that it was the start of our season. Because of the uncertainty as to whether players would leave us or whether they wouldn't. The players that we have acquired are very, very good players, contrary to what other people have said. I have no doubt that they will show it in the games to come.

on Per Mertesacker…
Per, from my point of view, is a terrific player. The amount of games he has played for the German national side means he cannot be a bad player. It is impossible. He is showing that gradually with us. I thought he was terrific tonight alongside Laurent Koscielny and I can only see him getting better and better when he gets used to the Premier League.

Source: Arsenal.com on 13 Sep 11

Pat Rice set to carry on at Arsenal

Assistant manager Pat Rice is set to carry on at Arsenal.

Arsène Wenger had feared the 62-year-old Irishman may retire at the end the current campaign. However the 1971 Double winner has indicated he will prolong an association with the Club going back almost half a century.

“I think Pat will continue for one more year,” said Wenger, who appointed Rice to his current role when he arrived at Arsenal in 1996. “He has told me that.

“This is important for me because he knows how I work. We have a good understanding, he is a compliment to me.

“The day he stops will be a massive loss. So I am happy that he goes on for one more year.”

However Wenger revealed that he will may add to his backroom staff over the summer.

“We always need [fresh ideas] and I am thinking about it,” said the manager.

“I don’t know yet if I’ll bring in someone. I cannot tell you yes or no because I have not made that decision.”

However Wenger did quash stories that he was about to bring in former Charlton boss Phil Parkinson.

Source: Arsenal.com on 15 May 11

Arsène Wenger wants 'winner' Pat Rice to stay as his No 2 at Arsenal

Arsène Wenger is confident he can persuade his assistant at Arsenal, Pat Rice, to remain at the club beyond the end of the season as he seeks to avoid enduring similar disruption to that experienced by Chelsea following Ray Wilkins's departure from the role this term.

Rice, who joined the club as a 15-year-old apprentice in 1964 and played 528 times for Arsenal, has been on the coaching staff in some capacity since 1984 and has always been Wenger's No 2 after a brief spell as caretaker manager before the Frenchman arrived from Nagoya Grampus Eight in 1996. Now 61, the Northern Irishman's contract expires in the summer and he is considering retirement, though Wenger intends to persuade him to stay on at the Emirates Stadium to avoid any upheaval.

"I hope he will not be leaving, and there have been talks about that," said Wenger, who saw Chelsea go six league matches without a win after Wilkins's surprise sacking. "He will be at the end of his contract at the end of the season, but he will not be going anywhere else. So it is a case of either staying or stopping altogether. I hope he will continue, and I want to persuade him. He has been vitally important because, when I arrived here, he was already a man of the club. And he's a man who know the British culture and he's a winner.

"He is a guy who is ready to give his life to win and you want to be surrounded with people like that. You can trust him, he is reliable, he has fantastic football knowledge. Now he wants to be sure to be completely 100% committed. He's not a guy who does things by half. He gives absolutely everything. From my side, there's no hesitation. I want him 200% to continue. I know how valuable he is for the club and for me, and I want him to go on. It's as important keeping him as keeping a big player."

Wenger was somewhat downbeat about the past year – "Every single defeat in 2010 is still very painful in my heart, so I hope 2011 will be less painful," he said – but, despite dropping two points wastefully at Wigan Athletic in midweek and with a tricky trip to Birmingham City on Saturday, had no complaints about the crammed fixture programme over the festive period. "It is the charm and craziness of English football," he said. "I personally like it. I'm vaccinated after the years I've been here. Somewhere, it certainly contributes to the promotion of English football."

"The whole world stops and England goes on. That means when Arsenal plays Chelsea, the whole world has no choice other than watch. That is maybe one of the strengths to promote English football. The whole world doesn't work and is bored, and watches English football which is not boring. I would like a winter break but after Christmas. I would like to keep that tradition and create now a two-week break after 2 January. You would just like a little breather."

Abou Diaby is the only casualty from the 2-2 draw at the DW Stadium ahead of Saturday's trip to St Andrew's after suffering a calf injury that will sideline the Frenchman for another three weeks. Robin van Persie, Alex Song and Johan Djourou are in contention for recalls after being rested in midweek, with Cesc Fábregas to return from suspension. Wenger is satisfied with the strength of the squad at his disposal and will only add personnel this month if "an outstanding opportunity" materialises. Regardless, he believes his side's prospects of claiming a first league championship since 2004 are buoyant.

"It's Arsenal's title to win," he added. "We want to go on a run and be consistent. The only thing we have learned from these first six months is that the team who have the greatest emotional stamina and resolve will win it. It could end up being the league of the mentally strong. It's a league with a lot of ups and downs, and the team that deals with that the best will win it. But we're more mature. We have strength, intelligence and talent. Putting these three ingredients together in every single game will be decisive."

Source: Dominic Fifield, The Guardian on 31 Dec 10