Arsene Wenger's long-serving assistant Pat Rice to leave Arsenal Arsenal have confirmed long-serving assistant manager Pat Rice will leave the club at the end of the season. Rice, 63, has been associated with the Gunners for 44 years having first joined the club as a youth team player in 1964 before then going on to make 528 senior appearances over 14 seasons. After a four-year spell with Watford in the early 1980s, Rice then returned to Arsenal as youth team coach before joining Arsene Wenger's backroom staff following the Frenchman's arrival in 1996.