Manuel Pellegrini claims that he was the man who decided Declan Rice should remain at West Ham.

He has said  it was his decision to use him as a midfielder rather than defender which was the key to the 22 year old’s success since.

The Chilean boss has taken a lot of grief over his signings so it’s significant that he should speak out on the role he played in Declan’s rise from would be central defender to England’s No 1  defensive midfielder and Hammers skipper.

Now at Real Betis, Pelle has been discussing how he fought the club in blocking a possible decision to loan Dec out whilst he was manager at the club.

He said: “Maybe the club didn’t believe in him too much and wanted to send him on loan and I said, ‘No, he will be a very good player’. In my first season with him, he made a jump to the top level.

“He improved in the second season and arrived in the national squad. West Ham is a big club, but he will end up at a club which is winning titles and he’s absolutely prepared for that.”

Pellegrini also noted how Rice’s situation was different to Mark Noble, with whom he now shares the captain’s armband.

He said: “Noble had played so many years in a successful way at West Ham. He is a man of the club; he started as a young player and has influence on the young players.

He’s a good person for players to follow. Declan Rice is different. He’s a top player who started as a centre-back. We spoke about him becoming a central midfielder. He worked very hard.”

Claretandhugh says; Everybody wants a piece of the Declan Rice success story and it seems the Chilean is no different. However, to go public with such an exclamation seems a bit bizarre at this stage pf proceedings. Maybe he’s been hurt by the criticism of his time in charge because everybody has known from Day One just how good a player Declan was going to be. Nice one Pelle – move on everybody. This was the guy who brought Jack Wilshere to the club!