By Hughie Southon
Declan Rice appears to have definitely made up his mind that he will be leaving West Ham this summer and the club has now accepted what they see as inevitable!
Despite recently “liking” comments on social media that he could possibly remain at the club it has been accepted within West Ham that he will be on his way.
The club – as we reported this morning via http://6foot2.co.uk/ – are ready to offer him a new deal worth around £250,000 a week.
This follows the summer offer of £200,000 which was turned down by himself and his father Sean who of course turned it down.
We have since checked with our key contact at the London Stadium and whilst the offer will be made, the reality is that hopes he will remain at West Ham have dimmed to the point of acceptance.
Our contact made no bones about the position making it clear again that money – whilst an improved contract would be offered – is not Declan’s motivation.
He said: “We have all more or less accepted he won’t be staying – he has said as much. It looks inevitable”
However, none of us should be unduly upset – Declan has been a dedicated and magnificent player for this club and should the time come we will be wishing him every success.
The inevitability of this has been well documented fora couple of years.
However, in order to maximise the value of this departure all Hammers media outlets, social networks too should consider playing this out with a straight poker face.
Clubs such as Saints, Foxes, Seagulls etc gain maximum value from their leading lights, Hammers on the other hand have been appalling at getting top dollar, we share too much sensitive information too often and it leads to derisory offers and player agitation to the point where we end up accepting low ball offers, think Payet, Arnie in recent times.
We know he’s going, but let’s blag it to aid in bumping up the price please 🙏.
The reality is not leaking in this case surely DJ. Everybody knows how good he is. It is just a case of whether there will be a tug of war for him or just one club showing an interest
Agreed,, and that’s fair enough.
Something about this impending departure seems very clandestine and it will not surprise anyone if a “closed market “is cited as a reason at sometime further down the line.
My hope is that our club can negotiate and receives absolute top dollar to help fill the gargantuan chasm that will be left, needless to say that we need the right manager to identify and secure an adequate replacement as and when.