West Ham may keep Declan Rice with PL rivals ‘more likely’ to look elsewhere
Declan Rice’s West Ham United future has long been on the tongues of many a football fan but they could have received a boost according to the latest report.
Transfer insider Dean Jones, speaking to Give Me Sport, believes that Manchester United are more likely to go after Youri Tielemans of Leicester or Ruben Neves of Wolves rather than Rice.
The England international is no longer on Manchester City’s radar as well [Claret and Hugh] to rule another side out of the race for the 23-year-old.
Both players mentioned are slightly different in play style to Rice, with the Hammers vice-captain more combative than the playmaker nature of Tielemans and Neves.
“I think that if you’re going to get a midfielder from the Premier League joining Man United, it’s more likely to be Tielemans or Neves than Declan Rice,” Jones said.
Take what you can get
It’s good news, but it certainly isn’t the end of the saga and he may still end up at Old Trafford next season.
The price that United would have to pay to get Rice is what might keep them away the most because his overall play is as good as anyone in world football.
Neither Tielemans nor Neves are on Rice’s level though and if West Ham can rule United out of the race, that is one less team they need to fend off in the summer.
He will be nye on impossible to replace in David Moyes’ midfield when he does leave the London Stadium but that cannot stop the Irons from trying and it could even be that they go after one of the Red Devils’ targets instead.
Right now though, they need to take every little bit of positive news as a win and hope that by the time August rolls around, Rice is still a Hammer, but there is a long time until then.
In other West Ham news, the Irons are chasing this £10million rated defender over a summer deal.