West Ham United midfielder Declan Rice has been the subject of a transfer interest from teams like Chelsea and Manchester United and many rumours claim that the England international could be on his way out in the summer.
Rice has seen a meteoric rise with the Hammers over the past few seasons and there’s no doubt that under David Moyes, the 22-year-old has turned himself into one of the most important players in the West Ham starting line-up.
Moyes knows fully well that with the transfer window opening up, the suitors will try and swoop in which is why he’s made it clear that neither he nor the club’s management has any intentions of letting Declan Rice leave in the summer.
Moyes told Sky Sports: “I don’t think [co-owners] David Sullivan, David Gold or myself have got any intention of losing Declan Rice.
“We’ve just qualified for Europe, it’s a brilliant achievement. Declan has been a big part of that and we want him to be a big part of what we do next year as well.”
Can West Ham United hold onto Declan Rice?
West Ham United have made it into Europe next season which is big achievement for them and this will be used as an asset by Moyes to convince Declan Rice to remain at the club next season.
But there are a number of reasons why we don’t think the Hammers will be able to hold onto him any longer.
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Chelsea are one of the interested sides and there have been multiple reports that Rice wishes to head back to the club where he had actually started his youth career before joining West Ham United.
The Blues have already secured a top-four finish and if can win the Champions League next weekend then they are sure to make a really strong case in their favour.
Man United are the other side who are keen to land Declan Rice in the summer and many experts think Solskjaer could use Jesse Lingard as a counter-weight to make this deal go through.
David Moyes wants to hold onto Lingard on a permanent deal but his transfer price could be an issue for the club. And Manchester United could use this exact opportunity to try and convince West Ham United to part ways with Declan Rice, in exchange of Lingard plus cash.
West Ham United will obviously do all they can to hold onto the midfielder but if Man United and Chelsea try hard then it will be almost impossible for Moyes to stop rice from leaving.
