West Ham, unfortunately, saw their Europa League run come to a sorry end on Thursday night.
Beaten 3-1 over two legs in the competition’s semi-final against Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt, David Moyes’ Hammers will not be in next month’s final.
Although the Londoners still have three Premier League games still to play, failure to qualify for either of Europe’s top two competitions again next campaign could see them forced to sell some of their best players.
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One player who has seen his future heavily speculated is midfielder Declan Rice.
Understood to be wanted by a whole host of top sides, the club that appears best placed to sign the England international, at the moment, is Manchester United and former Liverpool striker Stan Collymore feels the time may be right for the Hammers to cash in.
Speaking exclusively to CaughtOffside, columnist Collymore said: “As difficult as it would be to let Declan Rice go, that £100m – £120m would go quite some way to be able to then compete with Arsenal, Spurs, Villa.
“[…] I think now, tactically, might be the right time to cash in on him to be able to strengthen in other areas and crucially keep the core of the team they have got…”
.@StanCollymore on Declan Rice ?
? “As difficult as it would be to let Rice go, that £100m-£120m would go quite some way to be able to then compete with Arsenal, Spurs etc…”
? “I think now might be the right time, tactically, to cash in on him…” ? pic.twitter.com/ILZja8HU8d
— CaughtOffside (@caughtoffside) May 6, 2022
Collymore has never forgiven the WH fans for goading him when he was at Forest (I was at the game when the supporters sang “Colly, W—— W—— W—- to him. I thought it was a beautiful rendition. Collymore looked like he was going to cry). So not sure anything he says about West Ham ids worth listening to.