(Photo by Arfa Griffiths/West Ham United via Getty Images)The praise continues to pour in for Declan Rice and Grady Diangana from all quarters as the fall out from yesterday’s victory over Burnley reverberates around the club.
Both of course cost absolutely nothing in a football world dominated by massive money and huge reputations.
These two young men continue to display that an organised academy with gifted people running it can save the club millions of pounds.
And it’s good news that both players are tied down to West Ham for another two years each.
Rice has been turning in top performances all season and yesterday again was quite magnificent in the midfield as Diangana turned on the style up front.
The young midfielder was always in the correct position to make attack-stopping interventions and then show his range of distribution as he moved forward.
He and Diangana also demonstrated how playing at under 23 level has benefited them, and now the first team, as Rice regularly found him before the winger started off on his blistering right win runs.
And former Arsenal midfielder Paul Merson was deeply impressed with the performances of both when he said on Soccer Saturday.
He said: “Both of them were impressive. Both of them. Rice sits there and he keeps it very simple and Diangana, he got people off their seats. Every time he got it, he always looked to try and beat someone, he played a great ball to Anderson for his goal.”