By Allen Cummings
Declan Rice is with doubt the brightest young prospect at West Ham for many a long year, a throwback to the halcyon days of Ferdinand, Lampard, Carrick, Defoe and Cole. A player with the football world at his feet – literally.
With the exception of Arnie, Declan was our player of the season by a country mile. I was one of his biggest fans – and many others on C&H were equally like-minded.
But football is a fast-changing world. Yesterday’s hero can quickly become today’s villain. I’m not suggesting Declan is morphing into public enemy No. 1. Far from it.
But I do detect a subtle shift in attitude from fans like myself as the progress – or more specifically – the lack of it over the player signing a new improved contract has dragged on through the summer.
As Hugh has mentioned only this morning in a news update it looks like the two parties, West Ham and Team Rice appearing to be at an impasse.
Meanwhile, of course, Manuel Pellegrini has steadily been bringing in new faces and consequently stronger competition for all positions, a strengthening that makes Declan’s first team place no longer the certainty it once looked, and most of us were urging for, just a few months ago.
As an old school Hammer I love seeing our youngster progress. It’s what we did so well in those days of yore. It’s a different ball game in today’s football though. A youngster coming through the ranks is an exception rather than a rule. There’s no doubt Declan IS an exception. An exceptional talent with massive potential. But ‘potential’ is the key word. With just 27 Premier League appearances behind him Rice still has plenty to prove.
There are debates over where Declan might be used in Pellegrini’s favoured 4,2,2,2. With proven challengers in both defence and midfield, it’s unlikely the youngster will be a first team regular. But football is clearly a squad game now, so Rice is sure to figure in the manager’s overall game plan.
Thought to be currently on £3k a week, the offer on the table to Rice is said to be £18k, plus £10k for each first team appearance. On the face of it to us mere mortals not a bad reward at all, especially for a 19 year old.
But the spectre of the reported £20k paid to Reece Oxford looms over the deal and therein lies a big problem. If it’s good enough for Oxford more should be given to Rice is the argument on social media.
Truth is the Oxford deal was a knee-jerk reaction, made without due thought for the implications or consequences. What at the time looked to be a milestone in the youngster’s career has now become something of a millstone for the club to deal with.
Rice and Oxford look to be different characters. Declan comes across a very level-headed and unassuming young man. But he’s still impressionable for all that. Open to outside influence that some feel, me included, may not have his best all round interests at heart.
The consensus of informed opinion now is that Manuel Pellegrini will monitor Rice over the coming months until the end of the year, then make up his mind on where he wants to go with the youngster.
I see nothing wrong with that plan at all. If, at decision day, Pellegrini believes there’s no place for Rice on his terms, so be it. As hard as it might be to swallow. We’ll survive.
Where in any other “job” would a 19 year old earn £28k a week, many would love that for an annual wage. That football is so out of touch with reality is not Rice’s fault but how he behaves at this pivotal stage in his development is really his to control. If he builds on last season he will command far more than what he is currently being offered and it will be based on how he is developing and value to the club. At the moment I think this is a decent offer and he would do well to accept it and then eat his football determine his value to this or any other club. I would suggest part of Oxfords decline has because he got too big for his boots too quickly and bought in to his own hype, hopefully won’t happen with Rice. Just sign Declan.
I fully support board standing firm. If I were them I would tell his agent sign deal before season starts of discussions shelved until January. He has already lost £85,000 since revised offer was made and by January he would have lost over £400,000 by not signing, and that is assuming he makes no first team appearances if he does he will lose even more. He has a year left plus we have option to extend contract further. His POTENTIAL is huge BUT it is just that potential. I suspect this is all agent and we can not be held to ransom
Couldn’t agree more Allen, if the reports are true on the figures and I would say that rarely proves to be the case in hindsight but lets say he has been offered 18k a week with a 10k appearance bonus it seems like a very generous amount for such a young player who may find it harder this season to establish himself with the player aquisitions made so far.
This is a rather speculative and unnecessary post in my humble opinion. We don’t know his current salary, we don’t know the club’s new contract offer, and we don’t know the figure being sought. To suggest that fans are turning against one of our brightest prospects for years is ridiculous. Is he impressionable? Is he being ill-advised? We don’t know, and it’s crazy to speculate. I think the club and the player should be allowed to carry out their business without this kind of potentially damaging comment.
WE DO IT’S 3K
No need to shout. How do you have these figures?
You either believe me or not and the caps lock was on. WE haven’t been here four years on account of getting things wrong
Fair enough. Didn’t want to get into an online argument. This is by far the best West Ham fan site, it’s just that sometimes I feel like stuff gets posted on here that’s a little bit unhelpful. Hope you don’t mind the honest feedback.
hE’S BEEN OFFERED 18 AND THEY WANT £30K TO £40, WE’VE WRITTEN IT SEVERAL TIMES
Do you know what,I’m sick to death of agents all they have bought to the game is transfers and the more a player moves the better,and they pocket some of the huge wealth on the back of it for what.? that is why there’s not many one team players,and just as a settled team is established one below average season and we have mass desertion.Ban greedy agents simple,anyway why grown men can’t talk on their own behalf beats me.COYI
Nice article, and completely agree. No one player is bigger than the club, and if his greedy agent has his ear over and above anyone else, then he’ll make his bed. He needs to make his own decisions, guided by his agent, but ultimately his own decisions, and if his loyalty is more to his chequebook than to West Ham, then we all move on knowing our direction. Here’s hoping he has a great start to the season, proves his value and gets what he wants.
If he plays he will get 28k per week. More than i earned in my last working year in a manual job. if he doesn’t play he’s still on 18 k. If he continues to progress, as i believe he will, he will get a substantial increase at his end of season review. That is how the club works at the moment. I don’t think we would have had a problem but for his new agent.
an agent is a pimp so makes the player or players he as on he’s books like prostitutes, players agents have ruined football the quicker they get rid the better. Oh I was at the Wycombe game last Saturday & after the game see Declan with he’s g/f they couldn’t find the car they went in but if he played on Saturday then must’ve found it
I actually can’t blame his agent for striking now while the irons hot so to speak. He probably knows there won’t be a better time. In a years time his stock might not be as high. A lot of fans look at Declan through rose tinted glasses for obvious reason. It’s a rare thing these days for a youngster to make the breakthrough into the first team. So he gets a lot of leeway. Presumably that’s why he didn’t stay at Chelsea, because he didn’t see a route into the Chelsea first team. He would have been loaned out to succeed or fail at some other club first before Chelsea would have taken a chance on him. That’s my bug bear with the agent demands. It’s thanks to us that Declan rice has been given an opportunity to make it as a professional footballer at the highest level in some respects. Yes he might have achieved it elsewhere but it also might have taken him far longer. I actually find it disrespectful to players like josh Cullen who is now a few years older than rice, has gone out on loan at a lower level, kept his nose clean and worked his socks off. He’s not earning much but the club have been taking loan fees for him. Same as Reece Oxford, is he worth 20k a week? Probably not, but how much were Borussia munchen gladbach paying us to take him on loan?