DECLAN Rice has a big decision to make. Wanted by both Arsenal and Manchester City, the 24-year-old will almost certainly leave West Ham this summer to take the next step in his career. For a long time, the Gunners appeared to be leading the pursuit. Now, last season’s Treble winners are reportedly making their sales pitch.

Rice is good enough to play for City. He is proven as one of the best midfielders in the Premier League and would only add to the quality of Pep Guardiola’s squad. However, the role Rice would perform for Manchester City is not immediately clear. He might have to change his game as a player at the Etihad Stadium.

City already have Rodri as a midfield anchor who is comfortable with the ball at his feet. They also have Kalvin Phillips as a depth option. With Ilkay Gundogan now gone, though, Guardiola needs a midfielder who can play higher up the pitch. This is where Rice could fit the bill in a way that perhaps only the Manchester City manager envisages.

Technically and physically, comparisons can be drawn between Rice and Yaya Toure. To date, though, Rice has operated in a deeper position than the Ivorian who has an agent of chaos in the final third for City. Toure was a ball-carrier. He broke lines and opened up space. Rice, who has labelled Toure “an icon,” could mould his game in a similar way.

Reading between the lines of past comments, Rice feels he has more to offer in an attacking sense. At West Ham, 24-year-old couldn’t be moved too far from his position at the base of the midfield due to the risk of the team’s structure collapsing around him. At City, though, the structure is already in place.

“I feel like I can score more goals, definitely,” he said. “I feel like I can get forward more and feel like I can impact games more with passes and attacking outputs. I get into good positions in games and sometimes I pass the ball where top players of the past would have shot and scored, so I feel adding goals to my game is somewhere I can improve.”

Under Guardiola, Rice’s game could reach a new level. The midfielder surely looks at the improvement of England teammates like Jack Grealish and John Stones at Manchester City and wonders what the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss could do for his own game. Guardiola would push Rice to the limits of his capability.

From Guardiola’s point of view, the signing of Rice this summer would also signify the intention to evolve further. The Catalan likes to test himself in the transfer market, as demonstrated by last summer’s capture of Erling Haaland and the effort it took to integrate the Norwegian into Guardiola’s possession-heavy system. Rice’s signing would be another test.

Whether or not Rice ends up at the Etihad Stadium this summer, City must start the process of rebuilding their midfield. Gundogan is 32 while Kevin de Bruyne is 31 and Bernardo Silva is 28. Manchester City have replaced legends like Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany, Silva and Toure in the past without much fuss and a succession plan that may or may not included Rice is needed for a number of midfielders.

Typically, Rice isn’t the sort of midfielder Guardiola likes to use in attacking areas. He would be a very different sort of creator to Andres Iniesta and David Silva, but Haaland is proof of what Guardiola is capable of when he opens his mind to new ideas. Using Rice as Manchester City’s new Toure might be his plan.