CandH’s exclusive blogger and Declan Rice’s mentor, former academy director Terry Westley explains  why the Hammers star player won’t have anything to do with the proposed European Super League.

by Terry Westley

Declan Rice is the most fiercely competitive player I’ve ever worked with and will have absolutely nothing to do with this nonsense new league. Trust me.

And that’s good news for those who fear he might be tempted by one of the top six who have apparently signed up to it – he won’t joining any of them as a result.

He’s so competitive and this would be a competition with absolutely no edge to it whatsoever – it’s a rubbish idea which frankly I don’t think will get off the ground.

Declan is heading to become captain of his country and if, as I would expect, players are banned from representing their nations, he would have another reason for having nothing to do with it.

The whole concept of a league without relegation is crazy and whoever is behind this has not thought it through – the backlash from the clubs own fans, managers, players, and most club owners plus the politicians will have shocked them.

And I have to wonder whether it’s not a tactic to pressure the Premier League into doing their own TV deals rather than using Sky, BT and Amazon.

Should it get started, however, I can assure you that will only increase Declan’s time at West Ham – he will want absolutely no part of it!