Two and two has never made five even in the crazy world of football rumours and counter rumours.
News that Declan’s advisors have rejected a couple of contracts have immediately worried fans into believing that bids have – or are about to be made – by any of the big three for our 22 year old crown jewel.
Two notable journalists are claiming again that Declan wants out of West Ham which is presumably based on conversations with his agent/s and which may or may not be true. We seem to have been here before !
The reality is of course that at some point over the next two or three years it seems impossible that Dec won’t attract a major bid or two.
But right now the two Manchester clubs are looking elsewhere with United about to sign £73 million Jadon Sancho and City having re-signed Fernandinho for another year, thus ruling out a bid.
Our understanding is that the contract offers were made as a straightforward attempt to nail Dec down for another two or three years on top of his present contract. Makes total sense and unprompted by any activity from elsewhere in his direction
Arguments over whether the figures were high enough have been raised but as we reported it would have made him the club’s highest paid player.
It would make absolutely no sense in anybody’s world to be offering him less than other players on the squad. Totally senseless and it’s not what happened.
We’ve all been in the game too long to count anything out but it would be a surprise to most if he were to be on his way until next summer the earliest with the club making it clear he is simply not available and have even stopped putting any price label on him.
Time to calm down again!
WHU should not be beggared to retain a single player.
As there is no loyalty with footballers, and none should be expected, then it is purely business. With that in mind, when the club picks up academy players that have been rejected and released by another, there should be a clear Return of Service agreement for the risk incurred and the cost. Perhaps that should be the case with all academy players.
The cost for sitting the unhappy graduates of the academy should be minimal so their careers die on the vine if they don’t honour their end. Business.
If I were Rice and had a 4 year contract I wouldn’t want to extend it either. Nobody knows what’s going to happen next month let alone 4 years down the line. As it stands he’s a WH player and hopefully will be for another season at least.
If as reported Rice wants 200 thousand a week from me its goodbye to anyone in my opinion silly enough to pay it. He may get a shock however again in my opinion he is not that good. Reality check ? Completely agree with the other comments the state the world is in and we hear this. Put it another way as well.Bobby moore he isnt .
Totally agree with that statement . Rice seems happy to be at west ham and probably only hoping we actually improve the squad with quality players not cheap deals that we always say never works by plugging gaps. Moyes to his credit has already said he wants young hungry players coming in with a couple of more experienced players too like most successful sides have so for me let the transfers begin asp as my big fault of moyes is he dithers in the market too long loses out and as his cv shows has not won what top coaches have in his career. Could start with forgetting lingard who’s form disappeared with us and get in pereira cheaper and younger plus doesn’t need for us to finish the euros to get him training . That would excite our fans playing with said alongside too imo
I completely agree, it would make no sense to offer him any less and I can also understand why they may not want to extend his current deal by 2-3 years. I would say that a win-win for everyone here is a contract extension of a year on a salary that makes him the top paid player (140-150k) but I want to be very clear if Rice is looking for a salary of 200,000 a week or more then we should not pay it. In this day and age when the world and the world of football is in such a terrible place and paying losing their lives, I would 100% back the club on this and tell him and his advisors we have made you a good offer but we are not putting the club at risk. If he then decides to leave so be it, the club is more important than any one player and the club have done what I believe is the right thing. I am getting tired of the greed and selfishness of players and agents and before anyone has a pop at me for this, I sincerely hope this is not the case with Rice. However if he is looking for a salary up there with the best players in the world, sorry its time to move on my friend. Just think of it 200k a week x 52 weeks is 10.4 million a year, we should not be paying this to any player.