Declan Rice is well on his way to becoming one of the most wanted English players in the world, and West Ham United manager David Moyes has admitted it will be hard to keep hold of the 21-year-old this summer.
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Jadon Sancho will remain top of that list until he leaves Borussia Dortmund for upward of $200 million, but Rice has quickly climbed the ranks since making his West Ham debut three short years ago. Not only has he shown well for himself, but Moyes also admitted that Rice “is carrying a lot of the team at the moment,” leaving one to wonder just what will become of the squad if/when he departs — quotes from the Guardian:“In my mind, he is arguably the best holding midfield player in the country and the best thing about Declan is he will get better. Declan is carrying a lot of the team at the moment and he’s the one who will carry on from Mark Noble when it comes to an end for him.
“Quite often when building a club you have to sell. I hope it’s not the case with Declan but I said the same with Wayne Rooney and Joleon Lescott [at Everton]. But the team got better because we were able to sign the right players to replace them. If that ever came around, I’d hope we’d be able to do the same here as well.”
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Rice is already good enough to break into the first-team rotation of any Premier League club not named Liverpool, and as Moyes rightly points out, he’s only going to get better. Given his premier combination of talent, age and nationality, Rice will easily top the $100-million mark either this summer or the one to follow.
Fans of every one of the PL’s “big-six” sides — yes, even Liverpool — should be hoping it’s their club that lands this special talent.
