CandH EXCLUSIVE
Terry Westley – Declan Rice’s main mentor and CandH’s exclusive blogger- has been watching his protegee carefully over recent games and responds here on how he saw his game against Kosovo and where he believes the lad will be going from here.
First and foremost West Ham have an absolute diamond on their hands in Declan Rice and that’s what matters as far us as Irons are concerned.
But yes, I’ve seen the criticisms from England fans but they need to get things in perspective. He is 20 years old and has started two internationals with his manager at international level with the manager deciding he is one of the country’s best players.
That should say it all. Of course he is going to make mistakes. It goes with the territory. There is nobody out there at any age who doesn’t and I find it a little odd that he has been getting stick when, and I have a smile on my face, nobody mentioned Harry Kane’s missed penalty!
I think the reality is pretty simple – Declan is an outstanding player and I believe he will be in the defensive midfield role for many years to come, but come on for goodness sake he needs more than two games .
I know this boy better than most in football and I can assure you that, just as he did after errors in the Irons team early on, he will go away and work hard, take the best advice and improve – he is a guy who takes everything on board and is 1,000 per cent committed.
However, there is one area in which he has to be careful and that is in responding on social media and perhaps giving a few too many interviews .
The point is that from his point of view them more he puts himself out there the more criticism he can expect to receive – it’s the way of the world these days with social media always watching.
Thankfully, guys like Nobes will help him and instruct him in that area, but he does perhaps need to stay quiet and just get on with improving his game which I know personally is always his man objective in life.
He doesn’t need distractions such as Twitter.
Raheem Sterling once had a lot to say but has quietened down and is looking all the better for it – perhaps Declan should have a chat with the England man too.
See you next time!
Tel was talking to Hughie Southon
Blimey his game wasn’t that bad made a few interceptions and clearances . He also played a nice couple of forward passes that got us on the front foot . He was not as bad as the criticism suggests and he will improve the more he plays for England . COYI ⚒
I was staggered at the criticism. I watched the whole of the match; particularly our man’s contribution and was proud. That one costly error aside, he was calm and efficient all night, made many crucial interceptions , two great tackles on the edge of the box that not only stopped serious goal attempts but in one case was the start of string of passes that resulted in a goal for us. I didn’t see any of his passes go astray – not too many blistering long passes but I don’t think that was his role. To see BBC viewer ratings putting him down whilst Mount and Rashford (nice guys who had minimal impact in their short sub periods) and Ross Barkley who made many a slip (as well as some great work) just underlines what a fickle, ADD-riddled bunch often vote on these things. They only seem to notice attackers. Keep up the good work Dec!
It’s possible the on line criticism was posted by Irish fans, I thought he had a good game in what was a strange international match.