Declan Rice

[Tezza65]

Bring back Dimitri Payet… and the Fair Play Award!

We also had Alex Song,who would be probably the most comparable midfielder to Declan.

If the recruitment is good and the football is more positive(no matter who is Manager),we could have a great season.Play the same way and bad recruitment,then we could easy do a Leicester.

[funky chicken]

In 2015/16 season we finished 7th and reached the quarter finals of the FA Cup without a single appearance from Declan Rice and a midfield the majority of the time consisting of Mark Noble and Cheikou Kouyate.

Newcastle finished 4th with Guimarães having to play alongside Longstaff and Willock for a lot of the season!

We can cope without Declan, but we have to get the balance right in midfield so we don’t lose all the strengths Declan had to offer. Plus, we need to make sure there are at least a couple of leaders in that dressing room.

I’m not saying it’s a piece of p*ss, but it’s not impossible either. Bring 2 of the right midfielders in and there is no reason why we can’t be up there again.

[Danny's Dyer Acting]

What this table does show is how daft a move to Arsenal would be.

They (and to a lesser extent Newcastle) had a flukey pre-World Cup run and since then tumbled down to being slightly better than expected.

I get the London rivals aspect but there's an odd desire on this forum to ignore the steady progress that Arsenal are making under Arteta.

He takes over mid season with the team floundering in mid table and then straight away has them in top 6 form for the 2nd half of the season. Next season there's a little improvement to 61 points. Another jump forward the next season to 69 points. This year they make another leap forward, even their weaker half of the season is still progress on last year (would be 74 points over a full season).

It's a young squad, they're not going to lose anyone important this summer and will add probably £150m+ in talent to the starting XI. Klopp & Liverpool have shown that it's difficult to build the 2nd iteration of a team but this one still has a fair amount of mileage and progress in it.

Being mates with a bunch of Arsenal fans who were unbearable in January I realised I really don't want them to win the league. Adding Rice to their current squad scares me a lot!

[Rozzop]

Has anyone bid £100 million for Rice?

I've know quite a few people that will not see him as a legend once he leaves, and not one of them are bitter - quite like myself - so you're statement of 'everyone' is somewhat incorrect, as is your bitter comment.

I quite like having world class players at the club - but if they don't want to be here - **** 'em.

FYI, there were clubs that bid for Noble when he was here, but he turned them down - because he's a West Ham boy - and Arsenal was one of them.

Says a lot that some fans feel Rice, a player that cannot wait to get out of the door and has turned down multiple contract offers deserves to lift a trophy over a player that devoted his entire career to us.

I've nothing against Rice - he's a superb player - I've made that clear in all my postings - but does he really warrant this revered status if he were to lift The ECL Trophy and **** off immediately afterwards?

Not for me he doesn't.

But do you really expect him to stay at West Ham his entire career?

Or maybe stay for the next year? Or next two years? Surely he goes eventually. You can't hold that against him.

He's been our captain and played more than 50 games for England during his time here. That's more than Lampard, Rio, Defoe etc ever did.

We may be on the verve of winning a European trophy but we aren't breaking into the top 4 any time soon.

A recent comparison is Harry Kane. Sometimes the player at the club is just too good for the actual club.

[Doc H Ball]

We also had Alex Song,who would be probably the most comparable midfielder to Declan.

Unfortunately, you prove the opposite point by scraping that deep barrell.

Rice is a rare generational talent. Our big mistakes as a club in the past - Shea / Puddefoot / Cantwell / Peters / McAvennie / Rio etc / Payet - has been in losing our stars and replacing them with lesser players. Had we kept and built on them, then it might have been a different story.

I've no faith whatsoever in getting £X for Rice and seeing it invested in making a better overall squad, nor in 'easily' challenging top 4 or doing a Leicester by so doing. That's crazy talk.

I cite 123 years' evidence, m'lud.

[Colours never run]

We are fortunate Rice is built like the 6 million dollar man and never picks up an injury because had he done during this season, I'm convinced we would have gone down. He's been that important to us and been the one that has just about held the Team together like glue, especially as our Captain firefighting both on and off the pitch. Not to mention we were also fortunate that there were so many poor Teams below us this season as we've gone down before on more points than this one.

[upton o'good]

No, we wont if we continually sell our once-in-a-generation world class players.

Never forget that the 2008 Champions League final featured four West Ham academy products.

And the side that won the world cup had 3 hammers in it. And as Harry redknapp memorably observed "we still finished bottom half of the league - how s*it must have the rest of us been"

You are better off having a team of very good players than one or two stars and a load of gaps. None of which means we should be happy about him leaving - but spend the money well and we needn't be a worse team.

For me our problem is amateur recruitment (and coaching). Back in that 2003 relegation season we went into it with Winterburn at left back and only 3 strikers (when we played 2 up) the quite ordinary players we signed in Jan - Brevett and Ferdinand nearly kept us up. Had they arrived in August we would have never gone down. Cresswell says hi

[bubbles1966]

I get the London rivals aspect but there's an odd desire on this forum to ignore the steady progress that Arsenal are making under Arteta.

I'm not sure it's ignoring it, more questioning whether they had a Lingard-like burst of form while the heat was off, before settling back down to their norm.

I think they've collected 34-35 points in four of the last five half seasons (that's borderline 4th/5th). The only deviation was in the period before the World Cup.

Six of their previous seven seasons have ended in 5th-8th.

As soon as the heat was turned up, they melted away. And this is against a backdrop of 3rd round eliminations in both domestic cups and an early exit in the Europa.

They've had a light workload, the competition was in a state of upheaval , yet still they missed.

[bubbles1966]

Unfortunately, you prove the opposite point by scraping that deep barrell.

Rice is a rare generational talent. Our big mistakes as a club in the past - Shea / Puddefoot / Cantwell / Peters / McAvennie / Rio etc / Payet - has been in losing our stars and replacing them with lesser players. Had we kept and built on them, then it might have been a different story.

I've no faith whatsoever in getting £X for Rice and seeing it invested in making a better overall squad, nor in 'easily' challenging top 4 or doing a Leicester by so doing. That's crazy talk.

I cite 123 years' evidence, m'lud.

Dicks to Liverpool, Paul Allen to Spurs and Hartson to Wimbledon are the flip of it, Doc,

What I would also say is that even when Spurs initially seemed to waste the Bale money, they were reasonably quick to flip their mistakes. Soldado, Paulinho, Capoue were subsequently outed at the same time they signed Trippier, Son, Alderwereld.

It's about keeping the investment money alive rather than spending £40m on a player who subsequently proves to be worthless and unsellable.

[szola]

Our big mistakes as a club in the past - Shea / Puddefoot / Cantwell / Peters / McAvennie / Rio etc / Payet - has been in losing our stars and replacing them with lesser players. Had we kept and built on them, then it might have been a different story.

In the 60s, when West Ham won the Domestic, European and World Cup, there was a golden opportunity to build.

We didn't go for it. There was no desire to push further.

[Garry]

Alot of west ham forums are saying that rice's dad and family are saying he only wants to stay in London and with only arsenal bidding we should accept less money for him . All this going on a week before the final. This and the antonio thing could have waited until after the final not great preparation

[Pob!]

Looks like Manchester United are now in poll position after making Mason Mount Declan Rice and Harry Kane their priorities for the summer according to the Mirror..

[Gsbgsb]

Alot of west ham forums are saying that rice's dad and family are saying he only wants to stay in London and with only arsenal bidding we should accept less money for him . All this going on a week before the final. This and the antonio thing could have waited until after the final not great preparation

He might want to stay in London but that does not correlate to us accepting less money for him. If Arsenal are not prepared to pay the asking price then let him put in a transfer request to “force” the move.

[Garry]

He might want to stay in London but that does not correlate to us accepting less money for him. If Arsenal are not prepared to pay the asking price then let him put in a transfer request to “force” the move.

I agree with this .

[TheGavnor]

I still have a feeling an Arsenal move has been agreed for some time 'verbally'. Don't feel it's the right move, but I just have a hunch.

[delbert]

In the 60s, when West Ham won the Domestic, European and World Cup, there was a golden opportunity to build.

We didn't go for it. There was no desire to push further.

Ditto after the 1986 season, hence me and a few mates falling out of love with the club for while.......

[prophet:marginal]

I still have a feeling an Arsenal move has been agreed for some time 'verbally'. Don't feel it's the right move, but I just have a hunch.

Me too.

[paulhs1]

Alot of west ham forums are saying that rice's dad and family are saying he only wants to stay in London and with only arsenal bidding we should accept less money for him . All this going on a week before the final. This and the antonio thing could have waited until after the final not great preparation

This is good news. If Arsenal dont cough up the reddies then we will have no choice than to not deal.

[paulhs1]

I still have a feeling an Arsenal move has been agreed for some time 'verbally'. Don't feel it's the right move, but I just have a hunch.

If that's the case then why waste the time talking to Bayern?

Looks like his dad is trying to drum up as much interest as possible so as to get the "real" offer on the table. That offer ain't coming from Arsenal.

[jabbaglob123]

If that's the case then why waste the time talking to Bayern?

Looks like his dad is trying to drum up as much interest as possible so as to get the "real" offer on the table. That offer ain't coming from Arsenal.

The higher the transfer fee the higher cut his Dad gets from a sale.

Maybe he's done that to force Arsenal to up their bid?