Declan Rice reveals ‘toxic’ West Ham stars David Moyes got rid of
Some West Ham players ‘turned toxic’ when they were fighting relegation and downed tools, vice-captain Declan Rice told Gary Neville on The Overlap.
Rice broke into the Hammers team as a teenager, with the club struggling for form under Slaven Bilic and languishing in the relegation zone.
David Moyes came into the club for his first spell as boss and helped guide them to safety, but Rice admitted while speaking to Neville on his YouTube series ‘The Overlap‘ that his success came in spite of some players downing tools because they felt they were too good to be in that league position.
“There’s been times at West Ham where it’s been awful,” Rice said. “It was awful. The season before was a relegation fight, it’s not something you want to be apart of.
“Some of the players in the team, when it wasn’t going their way turned toxic. Not the dressing room, in terms of individuals. Their ego, things like that. ‘I shouldn’t be fighting relegation’ etc, not putting the effort in on the pitch, not training well enough.
“When you’re in things like relegation you need everyone to be in it together, everyone to be at it, everyone on the same page.
“In the end we did get out of it because Moyes came in and really turned it around. From his first meeting, he said ‘if you don’t want to be part of it, you can go’.
“We got rid of all the toxic ones, we really pushed on. Since he’s come back it’s been so positive too. It’s probably the best it’s ever been, that I’ve been apart of. Training is unbelievable, we’re all going in the right direction.”
Progress
These comments say it all about the progress West Ham have made under Moyes.
Ignoring the fact that the Scot left the club after that season before returning a year later, the mentality and demands he’s brought in to the club have been a huge positive.
Players know where they stand immediately under the boss but also the changing room has completely bought in.
This goes hand-in-hand with the talk of Moyes not signing players unless he thinks they’ll fit in with the rest of the squad, as he looks to avoid things turning sour and continuing to push forward.
It’s likely to be a huge reason for why the players are performing so well and why the club continue to improve, so all credit goes to the boss on this occasion.
In other West Ham news, Declan Rice discusses his West Ham future with Gary Neville on The Overlap