Declan Rice: It’s the right time for West Ham captain to move on after fairytale finale
here were still more than two hours to kick-off when West Ham’s players emerged to survey what they might have assumed would be an empty Eden Arena, fresh off the bus in their grey travelling tracksuits, but the noise soon told them otherwise.
In volume, it defied the reality of a West Ham end barely a tenth full (as would later become apparent, both ‘sides’ were West Ham, too), the acoustics in this compact ground enhanced by the roof’s wooden underbelly, the kind you might more commonly find in a concert hall. In song-choice, it set the scene for a farewell to this European journey’s on-field orchestrator.
The chant began with its most reasonable demand, for just ‘one more year, one more year, Declan Rice’, before going up through the gears, the green bottles placed back on the wall, all the way to the crescendo of a decade-long contract extension, the kind even Chelsea might think twice about handing out.
On halfway, Rice exchanged a wry grin with Mark Noble, his predecessor as captain and nigh-on embodiment of this club, before stepping forward to applaud the splatter of claret and blue, some small beauty in the sanctity of the moment and the shared but unspoken knowledge that, really, this was the end.
Six hours later, history made and status as a bona fide West Ham great alongside Bobby Moore secure, Rice still would not quite confirm that to be the case, though West Ham owner David Sullivan today confirmed he would be sold this summer after rejecting a £200,000-a-week offer to stay.
“It’s flattering to be wanted by a lot of clubs,” Rice said, Arsenal, Bayern Munich and Manchester United at the head of the queue, a £100million price-tag upon his.
What a way to bow out: Declan Rice celebrates with West Ham fans
/ PA“But the badge on my chest tonight is West Ham, I’ve got two years left on my contract and, ultimately, it’s up to the people above. Until the day I walk out of this club, I’ll give absolutely everything and wear my heart on my sleeve.”
That day is surely nigh and, when it comes, the void will be greater than the one left at the base of midfield.
Rice has grown to define West Ham, all things to everyone all at once. An academy boy done good and an example to follow, an ambassador without flaw. A voice of compassion, the centrepiece of a community and, in this season’s times of trouble, a genuine, articulate apologist. An England international on trend, in purely footballing terms, to become an international superstar. The synergy between the player and club is so perfect that it hardly makes sense that Rice did not turn up at Chadwell Heath until the age of 14.
That he has stayed loyal for a decade has facilitated his development into one of the world’s best midfield players as the leader of something, when he might have been stifled by being one of many elsewhere.
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The time now, though, is right to move on, Rice simply too good a footballer to spend his prime years outside the elite, for all West Ham are headed for an unprecedented third consecutive season in Europe. In truth, this was not a game in which the 24-year-old showed it. Fiorentina pair Sofyan Amrabat and Giacomo Bonaventura were better, more composed, more controlling in midfield. That, of course, does not matter now — as West Ham’s goalscoring hero Jarrod Bowen said: “If anyone’s talking about the game, I’m not listening”.
As the refrain started up again, Rice certainly was, from a full and delirious West Ham end this time — and this time with trophy in hand.
No more years, no more years there may be, but Rice’s legend is cemented for all time.
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