Declan Rice accepts he will be staying at West Ham this season due to club’s £90million valuation but he is set to spark a transfer scramble in a year’s time with Chelsea, Man United and Man City all linked with the midfielder
- Declan Rice has accepted that he will be staying at West Ham this season
- West Ham’s £90million valuation has prevented Rice from securing a move
- Rice is set to spark a scramble next summer with several clubs interested
- Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City have previously been linked
England midfielder Declan Rice has accepted he will be staying at West Ham this season after their £90million transfer valuation blocked a move to a Champions League club.
Rice, still only 22, believes an extra 12 months under David Moyes at the London Stadium will not be detrimental to his career given he will gain his first experience of European club football.
He will also continue to skipper the team whenever club captain Mark Noble is not involved.
Declan Rice has accepted he’ll stay at West Ham because of their £90m transfer valuation
Rice was a long-term target for Chelsea when Frank Lampard was manager but the Blues, Manchester United and Manchester City have prioritised other positions this summer and were unable to meet West Ham’s demands given the financial impact of the pandemic.
United have spent more than £100m on Jadon Sancho and Raphael Varane, City have broken the British transfer record on Jack Grealish and may do so again with Harry Kane while Champions League winners Chelsea needed a centre forward and are in advanced talks with Romelu Lukaku.
Those moves have thwarted Rice’s chances to move to a Big Six team in this window but he is set to spark a midfield transfer scramble in 12 months’ time.
Rice is set to spark a transfer scramble next summer with Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea having been linked with him
At that point, City could lose Fernandinho and United will look to strengthen with Nemanja Matic already in his 30s. N’Golo Kante, 30, will also be entering the last 12 months of his contract at Chelsea in the summer of 2022.
Rice has never hidden his ambitions, saying: ‘When you start out in football you always want to play at the top. You want to play in the Champions League.
Rice feels that an extra season playing under David Moyes will help him to develop further
‘If you were in football and you didn’t want to do that, there would be no point playing.’
However, he’s decided an extra season working in east London and playing every week there will help continue to develop his game.
He is also an integral part of Gareth Southgate’s England team that reached the final of Euro 2020 and will now seek to qualify for the next World Cup in Qatar.
