Moyes on Rice: “We’ve no intention of letting him go”

David Moyes has made it brutally clear to any interested club that Declan Rice is on a long contact and crucial to everything he plan to build at West Ham United.

Once again the rumour that Chelsea will offer Ross Barkley and Michy Batsushayi arose but its bull and it will take a King’s Fortune to move the young man from the east end of London.

Moyes spent a long time talking to reporters about Dec’s contract, his position at the club, his West Ham future and the kind of money it would take.

He put it quite simply declaring: “If it does come it will need to be the Bank of England money.”

But he has no intention of his plans being derailed by these sort of rumours and knows – like everyone else at the club – only the departure of N’golo Kante from Stamford Bridge can start a serious Chelsea move for the defensive midfielder – and that’s a fact.

Talking to reporters following the main presser Moyes explained at length the situation surrounding the issue and said: “We’ve no intention of letting him go.

He added: “Declan was reassured a while back when he signed a five year contract, so if you do that you must think you’re committed to the club. You can’t chop and change as you go along.

“If somebody then turns up and offers you a bundle-load of cash then that’s a club decision, but if you sign a five year deal anywhere, if you sign a five year deal with your company then you know you’re probably there for five years. It’s  no different for football players unless somebody comes along and poaches you.

“You know what I think of Declan, I think he is a future captain of West Ham. When Mark Noble comes to an end then hopefully it will be Declan Rice, so we’ve no intention of letting him go. If it does come it will need to be the Bank of England money.”

The manager doesn’t believe Dec will be affected by the rumour mill continually linking him with moves adding: “Well he’ll probably be on holiday while this is all happening, he won’t be with me. He probably won’t need to block it out; he just needs to go and put his feet up.

“Knowing Declan he’ll keep himself ready [for next season]. Hopefully he is selected in the England squad the way he has been playing is good enough, he’s very good at the moment.

“I am really excited at the thought of Declan and Tomas Soucek going forward, some of the young players we’ve got, and we’re starting to show signs of something forming, if we can add to it and get those final pieces it will be a positive step forward.

“I’m confident Declan will be here because he’s under contract. But like anything else, whatever club you’re at even the biggest clubs sometimes sell their best players because they get the right value.

“But my intention is not to sell Declan at all, my intention is to keep him. But we can’t stop other clubs making offers, I’m guessing you boys will probably speculate because he’s out there, but the truth is we’ve had no offers or nothing, nobody has come to us.

“He’s a really good player and I see him helping us, and I hope he sees what we are trying to do. We’re going to try and add better players and add things to it which would make him excited about being at West Ham in the future.”

 

About Hugh5outhon1895

Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!" Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon