Declan Rice

[hammerman11]

gone in the summer with all our best wishes. 100m plus player such as gallagher, philips or mctominay. liverpool can off us nat phillips plus 120m

we then need to get a decent LB in who is ready for PL. pacey and around 24.

In the meantime lets enjoy dec as our captain leading the second half revival and winning the ECL under pochettino ?

[Kermit]

A lot of chatter on various blogs about the possibility of Pochettino shipping up at West Ham. I would ask one question though. Why would a manager of Pochettino's experience want to come to West Ham until the ownership issue is resolved ? Before I retired a company I worked for had the misfortune of dealing with David Sullivan once. He is not somebody I would wish to work for and, by all accounts, he is not held in high regard by the rest of football's hierarchy.

Hopefully he will soon cease to be the major shareholder, maybe even cease to be a shareholder at all, and a new ownership can stamp their mark on the business. But until that happens imo the possibility of persuading a "name" to manage the circus is the stuff of pipe dreams.

[Lovejoy]

Is he our best academy product ever? I think there’s a fair chance he may well be.

Hard question, for me he isn’t but can understand some saying he is. The most talented one I’ve ever seen through our ranks is still Joe Cole.

[BobbyMooreLower]

As we all know he will be off sooner or later

Can we now draw a line under the keep rice tactics and do what's best for the team.

Right Declan you stay back and protect the back 4

I know you get bored and want to be prime Gerrard but your one of best at sitting and breaking up play

Thomas get those runs into the box back

Rice is the best ball carrier in the league.

We cannot ask him just to sit in front of the back 4.

[I am Legend]

So it seems most people have just been ground down to accept that we'll sell a generational player, one of the best in the league, to another PL team this summer. I don't think a new owner will let him go. And GSB would have to be insane and or dumb as f*** to devalue the club with its best asset before a sale.

If we're going to sell our best player and be unable to fit in higher quality players like Paqueta, Scamacca, then frankly, why even bother?

Rice has not made it clear he wants to leave. He hasn't asked to leave. Until then, I can't see us selling as the money won't be much use.
Is Moyes going to spend another 150m on higher quality players he can't use due to dinosaur football? f*** it, give him 300m, maybe he'll grab a few decent championship players to come in and work their arses off. Or buy some top-class players who'll look miserable and shade of their former selves within months. Rice money will not be worth as much as Rice.

Get a manager who can handle top class players, try and progress rest of season/summer, offer him a new contract. If he doesn't want to stay after next season, then he can be sold in last year of his contract. Another season of Rice is worth more than any money we will get.

[MB]

Rice is the best ball carrier in the league.

We cannot ask him just to sit in front of the back 4.

It isn’t an either or. No reason he cannot predominantly sit but make those runs occasionally (like he did for England at the weekend and used to do for us). He is excellent at beating the press and carrying the ball. Best in the league is pushing it though…

The problem is he goes all Forest Gump and doesn’t know when to stop. You can already see the opposition funnelling him down blind alleys like they used to with Reo Coker.

He’ll never get more than a handful of goals and assists each season so I don’t see a better side using him in a more advanced role.

But for him to have that more conservative role then we need to change the players around him. End product or not, there is a reason he his having to make those runs and I think it is more to do with what our team lacks than it is to do with Rice’s ego.

We’ve lacked it since he who shall not be named left us and the current “fix”just doesn’t do it for me.

[Crouchend_Hammer]

Rice has not made it clear he wants to leave. He hasn't asked to leave. Until then, I can't see us selling as the money won't be much use.
Is Moyes going to spend another 150m on higher quality players he can't use due to dinosaur football? **** it, give him 300m, maybe he'll grab a few decent championship players to come in and work their arses off. Or buy some top-class players who'll look miserable and shade of their former selves within months. Rice money will not be worth as much as Rice.

Tbf he has made it clear he wants to leave. He isn't going to kick up a stink about it but everyone knows he is looking to move on
In the same way Ronaldo wanted to leave Man U (first time round), Bale wanted to leave Spurs etc etc

[snooperpooper]

Of course, none of us want to see him go but, if he has to then I hope it's Real Madrid

[jabbaglob123]

To me I'm convinced he will go to Liverpool with Bellingham

[EastleighHammer16]

To me I'm convinced he will go to Liverpool with Bellingham

They don’t have 200m+ to spend on 2 players. Or maybe I should say their owners won’t spend that.

[jabbaglob123]

They don’t have 200m+ to spend on 2 players. Or maybe I should say their owners won’t spend that.

They've been put up for sale by FSG. They'll have the money.

[snooperpooper]

They've been put up for sale by FSG. They'll have the money.

And nobody has bought them. They don't have the money.

[shifty]

Rice is the best ball carrier in the league.

We cannot ask him just to sit in front of the back 4.

We can if it's for the greater good of the team as a whole?

[Burnley Hammer]

I'm fine with Rice playing the role he's playing at the moment - ie a left sided box to box midfielder. We need to officially recognise that though and stop pretending he's one of two defensive midfielders. If we carry on pretending then Soucek continues to be positioned incorrectly on the right hand side of the pitch.

[Colours never run]

Is he our best academy product ever? I think there’s a fair chance he may well be.

I think Bobby Moore might have something to say about that one, if he were still alive..

[fjthegrey]

I don't even think he's the best midfielder we've produced since I was born.

[hammers92]

I think Bobby Moore might have something to say about that one, if he were still alive..

Was Moore one of the best in the world in his position at 23 years old? I honestly don't know that so it's an open question.

[Sloop John B]

Was Moore one of the best in the world in his position at 23 years old? I honestly don't know that so it's an open question.

Moore was England captain at 23 and lifted the world cup 2 years later.

Fantastic player Rice no doubt about it, but after a very West Ham performance against the USA it's clear that Henderson has been brought in to ensure we keep the tempo and drive at a high level. Rice's biggest weakness is his maturity, it's on par with his age not his ability.

[Johnny Byrne's Boots]

If time machines were available and England had played Brazil with Pele at the weekend, I doubt Pele would be making a beeline towards Rice to swap shirts.

[YorksHammer]

Why do we have to work out where Rice sits in the West Ham pantheon? Can he not just be a really good player, our best currently?