Ashton blasts Rice valuation as ridiculous
There has been so much hype surrounding the Hammers defensive midfielder with transfer fees of between £70 million to £100 million that the mind has started to more than boggle.
And the 35 year old former Hammers striker has probably brought a degree of sanity to the situation with his latest views given exclusively to https://www.goal.com/en/news/rice-isnt-anywhere-near-100m-player-ex-west-ham-star-not/1huqioow5n9lp1exggf7vdh1ym
Whilst he accepts that the 20 year old is outstanding in many areas of the game he is simply not having £100 million price tags on a player who himself has often made it clear he still has much to learn.
And the reality is that he is probably doing the 20 year old a big favour by bringing some perspective to the discussion surrounding him and removing pressure from his shoulders.
Ashton is not a pundit to go OTT and can thus be trusted – unlike many – and he declared: “He reads the game very well, he breaks the play up superbly. On the ball nowadays, you want your holding midfield players to dictate tempo and I’m not quite sure he’s got that.
He’s obviously got Mark Noble to learn off, I think he’s still better than him at that, and where I would like to see improvement is on the ball, being comfortable, being able to dictate the pace.”
And discussing the £100million price tag he added: “I can’t see that. That’s a ridiculous amount for a player of his quality at the moment. I don’t think he’s anywhere near a £100m player.
It is daft money nowadays, but I wouldn’t be saying that.”