David Moyes has maintained that he wants Declan Rice to remain a West Ham United player, but has admitted that the England international could leave in the summer, as reported by The Guardian.
The Scotsman even referred to Rice as “arguably the best holding midfield player in the country”, which shows how highly he regards the 21-year-old.
It is only natural that Moyes has been full of praise for Rice, due to how influential he has been for West Ham this season.
The Englishman averages 3.1 tackles, 2 interceptions, 1.2 clearances and 1.3 dribbles per game, while also maintaining a pass success rate of 87.3%.
Watch West Ham United Videos With StreamFootball.tv Below
While this is a positive for the Hammers, form such as that does mean they run the risk of losing him in the summer, which Moyes has addressed: “Quite often when building a club you have to sell. I hope it’s not the case with Declan but I said the same with Wayne Rooney and Joleon Lescott [at Everton]. But the team got better because we were able to sign the right players to replace them. If that ever came around [Rice leaving] I’d hope we’d be able to do the same here as well.”
This way of thinking is positive in theory, but considering the problems West Ham are facing, it is hard to see how that approach could work at London Stadium as it did at Everton.
One of the main issues at West Ham in recent years has been their recruitment, with the lack of direction being shown by Director of Football Mario Husillos leaving the club alongside Manuel Pellegrini when the Chilean was sacked.
Someone’s got to own them: Who do these incredibly unwanted PL records belong to?
In addition, there seems to be very little cohesion in terms of signings made. The fact Sebastien Haller was brought in to replace Marko Arnautovic despite the two having very different styles of play sums that up. Haller is a target man, whereas Arnautovic was much more of an all-action player.
Therefore, when someone who is so influential is being dealt with, it has to be questioned whether this type of recruitment warrants being trusted to fill the void of someone like Rice.
Meanwhile, one West Ham man is still working on securing an exit from the club.