Declan Rice focused on West Ham for minimum of next 12 months

West Ham United seemed destined to keep hold of Declan Rice for another season after he reached an agreement with the club, according to Claret and Hugh.

The 23-year-old wants to win trophies but he is fully focused on the Hammers for the next 12 months as a minimum with no suitable alternatives interested.

West Ham aim to be winning trophies themselves soon enough though and Rice has a verbal agreement with the club that he can pursue an exit as early as next summer if they fail their objective.

West Ham

Claret and Hugh claim that Rice has informed the club himself that he has no intentions of submitting any kind of formal transfer request with talks between representatives of both parties being “100 per cent amicable.”

Even if he does decide to leave next summer, his £150million price tag would remain and could even increase if he stars for England at the upcoming 2022 Qatar World Cup in November.

West Ham will even try to tie him down to a new deal at the London Stadium with a weekly wage of £200,000 on the table for the vice-captain as reported by Claret and Hugh.

Massive

This is absolutely ginormous news for David Moyes and West Ham with the 23-year-old pivotal to everything they do in attack, transition and defence.

There is no more important player at the football club right now and you could even argue that no one has ever been this crucial to a single team in the history of the football club.

West Ham

Without Rice, the Irons would be nowhere near a Europa League semi-final nor battling for a Champions League place in the Premier League but he has dragged them to great things over the past two seasons.

Manchester United had looked like the most likely of places he would go but the Red Devils are struggling to reach the Champions League right now and they might not be able to offer the level of football Rice requires.

West Ham might still miss out but there looks to be no other alternatives around for him so another year at the London Stadium makes perfect sense.

In other West Ham news, this 22-year-old playing in Italy could be the perfect backup for Rice and Tomas Soucek if the Hammers make a deal happen.

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