David Moyes says Declan Rice won’t leave West Ham for £100m
West Ham boss David Moyes says interested parties have missed the chance to sign Declan Rice for £100m and it would take ‘humongous money’ to get close now.
Rice has been linked with a host of top clubs including Manchester United, Man City and Chelsea for a summer move as he looks for Champions League football [Telegraph].
But while clubs look to line up a move for the midfielder, Moyes is confident that the 23-year-old will be at the London Stadium for a few more years.
“I can’t stop that, except say to them that you will need humongous money to get close,” Moyes said in his pre-match press conference. “That’s what you would need to do. They can write all they like, but he’s here for certainly a few years.”
“I said in the summer that I thought Declan Rice was £100million. That was the sales, that was cheap, that was your chance to get Declan Rice cheap.
“Declan Rice is right up with some of the best players I’ve certainly had. It’s his potential as well to get better because of his age. There’s a potential for him to improve and mature better because of his age.
“When you’re 23 years old and you’re playing a number of games, there’s a lot of room for that to improve. If you look at the England squad in the Euros who lost in the final, it would be hard to suggest that Declan Rice hasn’t played as well as any other England player since those finals.
“He’s under contract and we’re really pleased to have him. He’s like a special edition Declan Rice, there’s not many like him. For me, he’s arguably playing as well as any midfielder player in European football.”
Record
If you want to get Rice out of the east end of London, you’re going to have to offer up a record amount.
Currently, West Ham’s record sale is £26m for Dmitri Payet to Marseille, but when Rice eventually leaves it’s likely to be for more than quadruple that amount unless he runs his contract down.
The Hammers are in a good position financially and their league position continues to improve and be stable, but Rice is entering the final two years of his contract at the club.
If they want to make any money from his sale, they will have to consider bids from this summer onwards and if his desire to play in the Champions League is strong then he could push for a move too.
West Ham have to show a strong poker face when it comes to negotiations for their star man, and Moyes is doing the perfect job of driving the price up.
In other West Ham news, ‘Jeopardy’ – Mark Lawrenson predicts result of West Ham v Kidderminster in FA Cup