Declan Rice appears to have made up his mind about whether to leave West Ham and that has been confirmed by Claret and Hugh insiders.
But despite the common wisdom that he is on his way, he may STILL have second thoughts to make on whether he is indeed going to leave.
He has a simple but big choice to make: Does he want to spend his days collecting medals at which to stare later on in life or be remembered as a West Ham legend?
Our greatest player of all stayed until the virtual end of his career – Mooro. Then there was Bonzo and Sir Trevor who are now revered by the fans .
Now of course we have Dec’s huge pal – Mark Noble still at the club as sporting director with his son firmly entrenched into the academy.
There are reports that as the fans chanted “10 more years Declan Rice” rising from one to 10 incrementally yesterday, the captain pointed his finger to his temple suggesting he may be thinking about it.
Frankly, if it were a case of medals or legendary status at the club many would opt for the latter as despite everything there is no guarantee of the first.
Come on Declan give it just a little more thought!
Nobody will remember the medals you may win other than you and those close to you. The rest of us will remember you forever as a legend!
This has to be a dilemma for many sportspeople. In team sports there are so few that win competitions, yet many win individual matches. That means the vast majority end their careers with no league or cup winners medals for their efforts.
Most of the club competitions are won by teams with the biggest budgets. Therefore as we are not regular winners, if we succeed in Prague, one could argue the victory should carry more value, than numerous medals from one of the big spending clubs that dominate most competitions.
Just as football is a broken business model, at club level it is also a broken competitive model. That means the only competitions that are worth winning (in a competitive sense) are the Internationals i.e. the World Cup and the European Championship, if you accept that argument then Declan has as good a chance of winning these competitions playing for West Ham as he does playing for any other team.
He could win a trophy this year at West Ham. At Arsenal he could finish second in the league and win nothing or be a top six team like Tottenham and win nothing if it was just about trophies. The problem as far as I see it is Declan saw his mate Mason Mount winning the champions league with Chelsea and he’s wanted a piece of that himself. This year though he might look at Mason Mount and come up with a different perspective. He might look at Mark Noble and think actually I’d like a piece of that when I retire from football. Or is it more Likely though his thinking is based on the likes of Frank Lampard or Joe Cole his childhood heroes? Is he thinking that he has to move to a big six club to fulfil his potential? Does he want to be a big fish in a smalll pond ? Or is he capable of being a big fish in a big pond? These are some big questions for our Dec. Looks like he has some hard thinking to do.
There is too much money to be made by too many people to stop this transfer from happening. And I’ll keep in mind how much he loves the club when he’s kissing some other clubs badge next season.
Yep
Agreed SydneyC, when talking about anything, always follow the money!
Declan has been hugely underpaid for a couple of seasons, making just £60k pw, this season. The moment he signs with any one of his suiters, he will be pulling in 4 times that PLUS!
I doubt West Ham would be willing to match the sort of numbers Man Citeh will be offering.
As much as I hope Declan stays, I wish him all the best and hope it remembers who made it all happen for him. 🙂
There needs to be a bidding war between at least 2 clubs and who knows how much he might go for. Looks like Juve have dropped out of the running. Would he even consider Real after yesterdays debacle. Don’t Arsenal still have a spending limit?
Much as I would love him to stay it feels inevitable he will go. It’s not money, we have offered him big bucks. I think he wants to compete at the highest level, which includes playing progressive football with top players and winning most games. See how he loved it with Paqueta, Fornals and Lanzini his own game is played higher up the pitch. Of course the chance to win cups comes with it. I think he deserves Man City success. I just pray we don’t flog him cheap or with makeweights thrown in as Arsenal seem to want.
Agree- we don’t want another Wilshire. How about Martinelli Though? We’ve had some great players from N. London- Wrighty, Winterburn, Suker.
Should West Ham win the ECL on 7th June, I have a feeling that Declan Rice might agree a new contract and stay a while longer at the club he clearly loves. Unless he signed for Manchester City, there’s no guarantee Declan would play Champions League football or win medals every season. If he’d left a year ago to join Liverpool. Chelsea or Spurs, Declan would be very disappointed right now. Man United players won the EFL Cup and will qualify for the Champions League along with Arsenal whose players didn’t win anything. If he stayed at West Ham, he’d be part of a developing club as captain, and be talked about in the same breath as Bobby Moore in West Ham’s history. Bobby was captain of England and West Ham for over 10 years – Declan can emulate him if he wants to.
Well said Buster!