Overjoyed Rice but don’t relax until October 5

Make no mistake the Declan Rice transfer chat will go on right up to the window deadline day but right now he isn’t sounding like a bloke who wants to go anywhere.

He and Tomas Soucek are forming a terrific partnership which allows the new signing to get forward knowing his skipper – as was the case last night – will cover him at the back.

And Declan himself, playing out of his skin again last night, is thrilled with the way the team has responded following the Arsenal defeat.

It will come as no surprise, however, should Chelsea boss Frank Lampard make some sort of lowball bid for our main man before October 5.

However, he is still valued at £70 to £80 million by the Irons and would be impossible to replace in this window so it would be entirely foolhardy to let it happen surely.

There simply is no replacement at this stage and Chelsea really have no player they can throw into a mix to tempt us it seems.

Meanwhile talking about last night game at https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2020/september/28-september/declan-rice-weve-had-great-reaction Declan said: “I stood here hereafter the Newcastle game and said we couldn’t have played any more poorly, but now two weeks in a row we’ve had a massive reaction,

“At Arsenal, we should have won, and tonight we’ve won comfortably. We nullified their best players, we had a game plan. It was 4-0, but we missed some big chances in the first half and it could easily have been six or seven.

“I’m absolutely buzzing with the performance. Wolves are a great side, but tonight we showed that we are a great team.”

Rice was also thrilled for David Moyes’ backroom staff, with assistant Alan Irvine and coaches Paul Nevin, Kevin Nolan and Stuart Pearce stepping up as the manager had to take charge on Sunday from home, having tested positive for Covid-19 last week.

“Our manager tested positive for COVID, so the backroom staff have taken over,” he added. “I know they’ve been on Zoom calls all week and the manager’s been getting his points across to them, which they’ve been putting onto the training pitch.

“I couldn’t be any happier for the staff who were here tonight because they’ve stepped into the manager’s shoes brilliantly. It’s a collective effort and I’m delighted for the management tonight.

Rice had praise for Jarrod Bowen too, with his two-goal haul showing exactly what the January signing can do on the biggest stage.

“He’s full of energy and spark,” Rice explained. “When he comes inside on that left foot, he opens it up and bends it into the far corner and that’s what he’s good at.

“We see it every day in training and he’s turned that into goals on the pitch tonight so I’m delighted for him.”