WHZ View: 22 y/o Declan Rice a leader of men at West Ham
Since making his West Ham debut on the penultimate day of the 2016/17 season, Declan Rice has gone from strength to strength in East London.
The 22-year-old has skippered the Hammers for much of this season. He’s led David Moyes’ side to the brink of European football, consistently performing week in week out in the middle of the park.
Rice speaks as if he’s completed 15 seasons in the Premier League. Maturity beyond his years, he’s become a leader in the West Ham squad and is critical to everything we do. He is always demanding more from his peers, most of whom are older than him.
“Speaking honestly, the last two or three years have been below par,” Rice told whufc.com.
“We’ve been in a relegation battle and looking to finish mid-table, but a massive club like West Ham with a massive fanbase and a massive stadium needs to be pushing where we are now.
“The lads are really confident now, going into the last ten games, that we can really pull something out of the bag. We know we can keep the form going and keep winning football matches to push up the table, but we’re going to take it one game at a time.”
Captain fantastic
You genuinely forget how young Rice is sometimes, given the manner in which he handles his media duties. Above he says the last two or three seasons have been below par. He is effectively criticising performances of himself as an 18/19-year-old.
Even at that age, Hammers fans saw the potential of the Englishman. We were raving about him in those days when he was a deeper-lying midfielder.
Performances are certainly better now. Last month, Rice led us up to the Etihad to take on the champions-elect Manchester City, and we gave a very good showing of ourselves.
Of the line-up Moyes started with, only Ben Johnson, 21, is younger than Rice. His leadership skills have been recognised very early. A lot of faith has been put into him by the boss.
This could partially be to tempt him to stay. Moyes said last month that he wouldn’t consider selling the England international for £100million. His stock is so high now that in every transfer window the links away will come.
As Mark Noble begins to wind down on his career, there is no secret that Rice is being nurtured to the role of club captain. He’s not doing a bad job either, as we sit fifth in the Premier League table.
We hope his development continues in east London. Genuinely, for Rice, the sky is the limit. He will go as high as he wants to go in football.
In other West Ham news, can our two Czech Republic internationals lead us to Europe?