Ray Parlour adamant Declan Rice will stay at West Ham, warns midfielder about responsibilities
Ray Parlour has warned Declan Rice that the midfielder cannot make demands of West Ham while under contract.
Speaking on talkSPORT [16/07/21], the former Arsenal and England man was talking about exit-linked players starring in club’s promotional shoots after Jack Grealish was pictured in Aston Villa’s kit launch.
Regular talkSPORT stand-in host Parlour said: “Why not, he’s the asset they’ve got at the moment, so why not use him for the new kit.
“The same as Declan Rice at West Ham, he’s still under contract at West Ham.
“If we want you to be our model for the kit, then you’re going to be the model for the kit, you can’t say no.
“If I was in their position, knowing certain clubs are after me, I’d say ‘of course I would’.
“I certainly believe Declan Rice will be a West Ham player next year, David Moyes will sit him down and tell him he’ll ‘you’re going to be our skipper going forward and there’s plenty of time’.
“Unless West Ham get an unbelievable offer, and they want to take the money as well and it suits both parties. But I don’t West Ham will, I think they’ll tie him up to a new contract, it protects them going forward and they’ll know they will get big money for him.”
Great character
There’s no suggestion that Rice would opt out of any contractual obligations or refuse to do anything the club ask of him – that’s just not in his character.
Up to this point, he has come across as the model professional who gets on with the job in hand and ignores background noise, so we don’t see any reason why that wouldn’t continue.
With regards to clubs putting their star players in promotional adverts – of course they’re going to, why wouldn’t they?
The only way it would be in any way deceitful to fans is if a deal was on the verge of completion and they knew the player in hand was going to leave – in that case, supporters would be well within their rights to complain that they had been sold a dream.
But in the case of West Ham and Rice, there has been no suggestion that any transfer is close to being completed, and it looks like the 22-year-old will be staying for another season at least.
In other West Ham news, the Irons are in talks to sign this player who could be a mainstay for Moyes next season.
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