It’s been a week in which Declan Rice has been discussed endlessly with the player responding to criticism from some on Twitter over his performance against Kosovo.
But the stats show an entirely different story despite him making the one mistake which led to an opposition goal and they are worth a mention here as a result.
Here they are: 
Meanwhile speculation over his long term future continues unabated with the BBC explaining that the written press see a bid emerging for him next summer.
That’s been around for a long time and although transfermarkt.com claim he will be available for around £40.5 million that is a long way short of the figure the Hammers would want to even consider an offer.
We have been regularly told that had a bid been made this summer it would have needed to have been around £70 million and that can only increase as he gains more experience for club and country.
It’s a huge amount of money for a defensive midfielder and a move away from the London Stadium is far from a given given his own comments that he wants remain and become the next Mark Noble!
Meanwhile ITK ExWHUemployee – commenting on the rumours – says on Twitter:
Man U have been interested for ages, even before Ole. It’s inevitable that the big clubs will be interested. It is up to us to decide whether we want to sell him or not. I expect both Man U and Chelsea to bid in the near future. The latter worries me more.
It’s a dual edged sword, on one side rice himself states that he will play this season and next, then see where it goes. Reading between the lines, if Hammers aren’t playing European football he could be prised out of our club by others promising Euro glory!
Should Rice play the majority of games as DMF, he would have clocked up over 100 appearances in the PL, a benchmark that suitors covet, not to mention greedy agents using that stat as leverage for pay rises.
The other side, are Hammers able to keep Pellegrini happy? Even more investment will be required to mount a sustained assault to be a top seven club,
If this was the case, where would we find the money from if we don’t sell big?
More questions than answers, get braced for turbulence at the London stadium.
Gonna run that as a blog DJ – you cool with that?
No sweat Hugh,
I’m over chuffed actually, thank you.
A sign of the times that any promising young player who emerges in the PL is immediately ‘linked’ with the top clubs. Top clubs who often ‘hoard’ the top talent, starving them of opportunity but preventing anybody else making use of them & preventing the players concerned from developing their skills. What a sad indictment of the so called ‘best league in the world’ that one of the outstanding talents to emerge in recent years, Jadon Sancho, has broken through by going to play abroad. Well done PL. Rant over!
The clubs desire to spend may not be realised as FIFA rules don;t seem to apply to some clubs… most of whom are (the old G14?) of Europes wealthiest…..
This story may have legs if the latest reports out of Madrid are accurate and to be believed for Chelsea? Rumours are starting that both Hazard and former keeper Courtoise have been singing the praises of Ngolo Kante to Zidane who is already a big fan of his fellow countryman. Early reports of a £100m plus approach next summer will be in the offering will have CFC fans concerned. Of course they have the great emerging young talents of Ethan Ampadu due back next summer as he continues to learn his craft in the German Bundesliga this term. The 18 year old Welsh full International is so highly regarded by both club and country it would be unclear, should Kante depart whether or not the Pensioners would need to buy? They already have the improved Kovasic and Jorginho playing a joint defensive pivot whilst Kante is injured but his permanent loss would need to be covered by a highly gifted DM player.
My guess is that Ampadu will make it with Chelsea next season and save the club a lot of money in the process.