ExWHUemployee offers his view on the Declan Rice contract offer and what should happen next!
So it was on this very website (Claret and Hugh) that the full details of Declan Rice’s contract offer were revealed alongside many other exclusives broken this week.
Whether the club should be sharing this information with trusted websites/newspapers is another debate for another time but with the information out there it gives us the discussion of whether our 19 year old Irish/English talent should accept the deal or not.
The offer is a basic wage of £21k a week plus bonus which could lead up to £40k a week and see his wage increase after a certain amount of games on a regular basis over the contract.
Compared to previous attempts at contract offers this on the face of it seems a decent deal especially when you consider that Rice is 19 and starting out in the game. Of course the majority of us couldn’t dream of earning that much at such a young age-I was earning £15 a week as a double glazing salesman at the same age!
So the fact that Declan looks unlikely to sign the deal makes him on the face of it seem a greedy unappreciative player who we are best to get rid of-this couldn’t be further from the truth.
I am under the impression that Rice would be prepared to accept £30k a week and sign a five year deal and in the ridiculous world of the Premier League football era-£30k isn’t that much for a Premier League footballer.
Yes, it is a lot of money for a 19 year old but it isn’t that much for an international Premier League footballer, which Declan is. Yes we would all play for West Ham for free because we love the club but even if we did make that offer we would have to have another career alongside it, a career is what Declan is trying to make for himself.
The headlines of him turning down £40k a week are wrong because as stated earlier it is based upon appearances and there are only 38 games in a league season and if he is to get injured that reduces that number too. If Declan was an academy player with limited first team experience and potential this deal would be phenomenal however he has done far more than that.
When Rice looks around the dressing room he will see players earning much more than he is asking for but who are contributing far less to the success of this team. Rice was runner up in the Hammer of the Year award last year and is surely an early contender for winning the main award this year.
His contributions so far cannot be overlooked yet even at a reasonable £30K a week they appear to be. Every one of us out there would feel aggrieved if we looked around our workplace and saw workers earning far more than us but contributing a lot less and us not being allowed the same because we are young.
I believe people are very ignorant to think Rice couldn’t get more than £21k a week elsewhere. Whilst no club would have been able to formally approach Rice without West Ham knowing there is nothing stopping them having a private word with his agent and making their intentions known and let’s be honest, it doesn’t take a genius to realise that most clubs would want to sign him and why wouldn’t they?
Declan Rice is a better player than McTominay at Manchester United and so by that alone they should be interested.
He also kept £100m Pogba quiet and also did the same against Chelsea’s star studded team. They would be stupid to not be interested especially when clubs do not know the consequences of Brexit and quality home-grown talent could become even more valuable soon.
The bottom line is if these clubs or any other club did move for Declan they would be prepared to offer a lot more than £30k a week when Fredericks for example commanded £50k a week when he had never played in the Premier League before.
I believe that Rice is being punished for the mistakes made with Reece Oxford’s deal who would be on less than £1k a week than Declan and it is unfair to compare the two because they are very different people and their contributions to West Ham are also very variant and certainly more than £1k a week contrasting.
The problem is the longer this drags out the more this plays into Declan’s hands anyway as the club will start to panic and need to offer him more as it ticks by. What I don’t understand is the likes of Payet, Ogbonna, Antonio and others have had contract offers given them to them well in excess of their original contract, why is Declan any less deserving.
Why are we haggling over £9k a week for someone who wants to stay, is our best academy graduate in many a year and someone who wants to play for us for many years to come and could be the future captain and lynch pin of our team?!
I hope that the West Ham board go in with a final offer of £30k a week (with less bonuses) and I think we can all celebrate that Declan Rice will be a West Ham player for many years to come.
It must be a very long time since our best player was being paid £3k per week ! The question is not as to whether he is only 19; the question is, “how good is he ? &, who is better than him & what are they being paid ?” Who thinks that Andy Carroll is as good a footballer as Rice ? And yet, he gets £85k per week – & he hardly ever plays a game for us !
There is something VERY wrong there . The same can be said about Hernandez; & many others.
Come on, acknowledge the boy’s ability & performances & cough up a salary that reflects this, & his worth to the club .
On that basis perhaps 40k basic plus bonuses ?
Spot on mate. Pay him what he’s asking for, because if we don’t somebody else will.
The question is not what anyone else is earning but what is he worth. How easy would he be to replace? If an apprentice plumber threatens to leave the job if he’s not paid the same as a qualified plumber the company has a choice to make. Is the apprentice doing as good a job as the fully qualified plumber. If the answer is yes then maybe the apprentice should be paid the same because you can’t replace him with another apprentice, you can only replace him with another qualified plumber. And that’s going to cost. So you might as well pay the apprentice. However, many would say the apprentice has overstepped the mark and would call for him to be got rid of and hire another qualified plumber in his place. It’s a difficult decision but the club can’t be held to random. You have to draw the line somewhere. Declan wouldn’t have broke into the Chelsea first team. They wouldn’t have taken the risk. It was us that gave him the chance to prove himself in the premier league. I believe he owes West Ham personally. I suggest he should accept our final offer with the proviso that his agent be allowed to renegotiate another new deal in a couple of years time. By then if he is still an established and integral part of the team he Would get increased terms and a better deal, more money etc.
£30k five-year deal for a player as talented as Declan Rice is a steal. I can’t understand the reluctance. This isn’t holding the club to ransom, this is the opportunity for a club like us to hold on to a special talent.
With 5k increase every 15 games it wouldn’t take long to get to a nice wage, if you start at 40k basic. then re negotiate after 2 years.
Once he starts playing for England which he will either in the friendlies in November or next years games the board will be looking at £30K as a bargain.
Come on Mr Sullivan……pay Rice what he’s worth now! You are happy to pay 2 x £40k to others who are 5-10 years’ older and contribute far less
Even more so now after England’s performance in Seville. He’ll want some of that and won’t ever get it with the Republic.He’ll be licking his lips. Southgate will want as many class acts on the scene.