The irony of West Ham getting relegated on the same day that former Hammers captain Declan Rice lifted his first trophy since Prague -this time with north London neighbours Arsenal – was not lost on Hammers fans.
The viral video that showed the moment Rice heard of West Ham’s fate whilst waiting for his own trophy presentation illustrated a genuine upset for his former club’s demise, surprising many Hammers supporters, me included, who’d have though he’d be solely focussed on the moment with his Arsenal buddies and supporters.
The West Ham sentiment seems to run far deeper in Rice’s psyche than many of us give credit. In an Instagram post today, Rice has laid his feelings out very clearly – even risking rebuke from his Arsenal admirers -but nonetheless, pretty plain:
“I will be supporting always”.. Ok, so the font looks more like an obituary card, but we get the idea.
Brings a teeny lump to the throat: Considering Dec will be focussing on the Champions League final next weekend, Kudos to the man. He didn’t need to post any of that.
I look forward to the day when we get to ‘welcome’ him to London Stadium again. With comments like that, even if he rocks up in the red and white of Arsenal he’ll likely be muting some of the boos and receiving the same kind of welcome that Hammers fans reserved for Joe Cole after his sale to Chelsea : I remember Joe secretly applauding the Bobby Moore stand as he stepped up to take a corner, despite wearing the blue of Chelsea.
Joe Cole: Another big departure who ‘came back’ to east London towards the end of his career: Never say never.
Runs both ways. I will always support Declan Rice when he isn’t playing us. He will boss World Cup.
All I can say is Dec you are all Class, and Congratulations to you.
Respect to you, Declan!
A real class act, anyone who boos him should be ashamed of themselves. He never let us down and watching his reaction had me in tears as it really started to hit home how badly we have been let down by those running our club, and just how much he loves West Ham, no matter who he plays for.
Who cares, he’s just another Arsenal player, and I’ll boo whoever I want, being the “child” that I am
I can’t believe why we boo previous players especially somebody like Rice who did so much for us and could have left a few seasons earlier. But not just that, when we do boo players they tend to score against us like lampard and defoe
As the previous two comments, I feel Dec was a great player, skipper and ambassador for West Ham. I sort of get some playful wind up of him for going to Arsenal but some of the diatribe and dislike/hate directed toward him is ridiculous.
I will always stand and applaud him at the OS……..well, when I say always I clearly mean if I ever get the chance to do so with the state our club is in at the moment!
It’s hard to give Declan Rice enough credit for the man he is on and off the pitch. Really high level values for a business generally so lacking them.
He was great for us and could of engineered a free but made sure we got all the money we could. Never a bad word about the club and so honest about the grounding he was given.
I hope he goes on to win many trophies.
I really can’t understand why supporters would boo him, does he owe us his whole career just because he broke through here? Of course he doesn’t. He gave the club fair notice that he was leaving and when. He even left us with a trophy, so leave the childish booing out.