Declan Rice

[szola]

The only reason that Rice is still playing for WHUFC is that not one of the richer clubs in the league, or in Europe have made a bid.
We've been lucky that both Covid hit and that the Super League has taken a hiatus.

If Manchester United/City, Liverpool or Chelsea want him, he is gone.
We've also been lucky with Tottenham imploding, Arsenal still not spending.

He'll be replaceable, same as every other player at ours.
That is the charm of neither having world class players, nor silverware ambitions

[Aztec Hammer]

He’d never have gone to Tottenham.

He’s also not replaceable. Let’s be honest. He’s the only world-class player we’ve had for donkeys years, unless you count the freak season of Payet before he turned into a bitch.

It isn’t impossible to keep him. Unlikely sure, but if we win the Europa League or make the Top 4, he’ll be here longer.

You can’t tell me we can’t find the money to pay him a wage in line with what the top clubs can. We can find a way to make an exception and give him 200k a week no problem.

[Doc H Ball]

Fairly sure we have a gentleman’s agreement to let him go close season whatever happens.

Not that there’s many fitting that description around.

[S-H]

Fairly sure we have a gentleman’s agreement to let him go close season whatever happens.

Losing Nobes and Rice at the same time, could destabilize us somewhat.

Moyes has a job on his hands, in that regard.

[Aztec Hammer]

Keep the faith.

Europa League win in Seville. Dec and Nobes lift half of the trophy each.

Noble officially retires.

Next morning, Rice announces contract renewal as new leader of the Club.

[Georgee Paris]

I’d swap Rice for Haaland

[szola]

He’d never have gone to Tottenham.

He’s also not replaceable. Let’s be honest. He’s the only world-class player we’ve had for donkeys years, unless you count the freak season of Payet before he turned into a bitch.

It isn’t impossible to keep him. Unlikely sure, but if we win the Europa League or make the Top 4, he’ll be here longer.

You can’t tell me we can’t find the money to pay him a wage in line with what the top clubs can. We can find a way to make an exception and give him 200k a week no problem.

Let's not forget where Tottenham were merely a few years ago.
They've been in Europe every season since 2006.
Champions League QF in 2011
Four years running in the Champions League from 2016.
Champions League final in 2019

If they'd kept up that pace, it would have been ManCity/Chelsea/Liverpool/Tottenham locked in as the usual top four.
Lucky for us, they've failed.

Rice is a very good player, and can become world class. At the moment, he is not.
If he were to become world class, he'll need ambition and drive.
Sadly for us, no player with a drive and ambition to become one of the best, will be content to stay at ours until we've gone rouge, and ManCity or Chelsea have done.

You surely see that it is not enough to give him £300.000 p/w wage. He doesn't come across as a prostitute.
He'll need 2 x 11 players on his supposed world class ability to be somewhere long term.

Let's enjoy him, and pray to higher powers that he'll never chose his boyhood team, to team up with him BFF

[Estuary]

If we continue to push on like we are doing he wont be in any hurry to leave. if we drop away he will. I think it is a footballing decision first and foremost for him.

[Aztec Hammer]

Rice is a very good player, and can become world class. At the moment, he is not.
If he were to become world class, he'll need ambition and drive.
Sadly for us, no player with a drive and ambition to become one of the best, will be content to stay at ours until we've gone rouge, and ManCity or Chelsea have done.

You surely see that it is not enough to give him £300.000 p/w wage. He doesn't come across as a prostitute.
He'll need 2 x 11 players on his supposed world class ability to be somewhere long term.

Let's enjoy him, and pray to higher powers that he'll never chose his boyhood team, to team up with him BFF

I think he’s the best central mid in world football, to be honest.

Yeah I agree wages alone won’t keep him, he is a winner. That’s why we need to win. We can win. No we don’t need 22 world-class players, if I read correctly that that is what you’re saying. No club has that.

We need to win. We need to play Champions League. We need to pay him wages commensurate to his ability.

None of these things are impossible.

[Het-Field]

I think the way the club is functioning at the moment (at least in the playing side) is encouraging him to remain, and there is little reason to switch. We are providing him with European football, highly ranked in the PL, challenging for cups, and his international slot is secure. Dial the clock back a few years and we weren’t close to Europe, the side was shifting and cups were out of the question. It is incentivising him to stay. But that’s an equilibrium that needs to be secured, otherwise he might look elsewhere.

I still maintain like Grealish, there will be a moment where he will want to win prizes, and status as a “legend” wont convince him to stay. But as long as we continue to compete, it will delay that itch.

[szola]

No, I agree, they are not impossible.

But if you had one shot, one chance to be at the best club possible, in your career. Would you gamble?
Once you've made it to the Champions League level clubs, you can more easily shift across.
It's not so easy to get in though. There are always talents coming though.
Every single season there is a Camavinga, Pedri or de Ligt moving up.

You're right, the 2 x 11 world class team was an exaggeration, but you get the jist.
He'll want to play with the best, in the best competition.

[Aztec Hammer]

The Europa League is the one. What is it, 6 games to get to the Final?

I genuinely feel the team is good enough to win it, with a clever CB and ST signing in this window.

Winning that changes everything for us. Not to mention it would mean we won the Europa League! Which quite frankly if that happens, I will feel like I’ve completed being a West Ham supporter anyway and the rest of it would be bliss.

[TommyHammer]

Keep the faith.

Europa League win in Seville. Dec and Nobes lift half of the trophy each.

Noble officially retires.

Next morning, Rice announces contract renewal as new leader of the Club.

Would be unreal news to wake up to when we're all hungover on Champagne and Jager.

[szola]

The Europa League is the one. What is it, 6 games to get to the Final?

Teams still in the EL:

Sevilla / Real Betis / Real Sociedad / Barcelona - currently 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th in that league
BVB - 2nd in the league
Napoli / Atalanta - 3rd & 4th in the league
Porto - league leaders

The majority of those who won their respective groups are lower rated teams.
Are they putting their eggs in the EL basket, the same way as us?

Will be interesting games

[sendô]

As I've said before, he wont want to leave us whilst we're still on the up. We'd need to implode and drop back down the league, and then the vultures would start circling.

Failing that it'd need one of the big boys to test our resolve with a £100m+ offer, which is yet to materialise.

Another thing to consider is after this season, Rice becomes club captain and not just matchday captain, something I am sure he will want to achieve before he leaves.

Arsenal still not spending.

Are you sure about that? They were the biggest spenders in the league in the summer and have been linked with Vlahovic for £60m. Not that Rice would ever end up there of course.

[YorksHammer]

I’d swap Rice for Haaland

I'm sure your tongue's in your cheek here, Georgee, but I really think Rice would be viewed as twice the player if he went to a European team like Dortmund, or Atletico Madrid or something, than if he went anywhere like Man City or Liverpool.

[paulhs1]

Teams still in the EL:

Sevilla / Real Betis / Real Sociedad / Barcelona - currently 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th in that league
BVB - 2nd in the league
Napoli / Atalanta - 3rd & 4th in the league
Porto - league leaders

The majority of those who won their respective groups are lower rated teams.
Are they putting their eggs in the EL basket, the same way as us?

Will be interesting games

Dont forget the small matter of Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Leverkusen.

[WestHamLyallStyle]

Dont forget the small matter of Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Leverkusen.

BVB is a reference to Borussia Dortmund. Ballspiel Verein Borussia. Yep, Bayer Leverkusen aswell. Some tasty teams about

[Crouchend_Hammer]

Most footballers are not motivated by money as the primary factor
What they are motivated by is success and achieving as much as they can and reaching what they believe is their potential
You don't get to the Premier League unless you have a huge hunger to succeed, burning ambition and a desire to be as good as you can be, and play at the highest and most high profile level you can

Rice will likely have a huge desire to be playing regularly in the Champions League and winning trophies/ competing in finals as that would signify he has fulfilled his potential in his eyes

We can't offer that, however much we would like to be able to

[Aztec Hammer]

He doesn't necessarily need to achieve that at 23. Perhaps it can wait until 25 if it means giving your club the chance to see if they can have a crack at it with you.

We're in the Europa last 16. We're ahead of Man U and Tottenham. We finished ahead of Tottenham and Arsenal last season. Something like the third most points and third most goals scored in the last year or so of football.

It isn't a failure of his football career if he affords West Ham, the club that picked him up at 14 when Chelsea discarded him, and gave him the platform to get to where he is now, another couple of years to see if they can continue their upward trajectory and reach a final or two, as well as some big Champions League games.

There would've been a point a couple of years ago where many would have laughed at the idea of West Ham topping a Europa League group at a canter, yet here we are.

I don't see the need to rush to get out of one of the most upwardly mobile clubs in football at the moment. And near enough your boyhood one at that, given how long he has been here and from what age.

Give us a chance, ffs.