Rio Ferdinand has risked the wrath of West Ham fans by saying he thinks Declan Rice needs to leave the club in this summer’s transfer window.
The England international has been linked with the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United on numerous occasions, and this finally looks like it could be the year he’ll be on the move.
Ferdinand insists Rice will want to win trophies and he probably won’t be able to do that at West Ham, so he should move on and the fans should respect his decision.
“You could say West Ham, stay here and have a career like Mark Noble,” Ferdinand said on BT Sport.
But the fans will hate me for saying it – I was a player in his shoes once here at West Ham, quite identical in many ways, and I wanted to win things.
“I wanted to do that at West Ham and it wasn’t possible, I wanted to win things and the fans respected that. He’s got enough in the tank here, done enough in his time here, for the fans to respect any decision that he does make.
“I think with Rice, he’s still got levels to go in his game. He’s still a young player and I think he does a job very, very well here at West Ham, but I think whether it’s here or elsewhere, there are other parts to his game where he’s still looking to develop himself, but will be extracted by a good coach as well.
“I don’t think he needs to improve, he just needs to add to it. We saw in the Europa League last season his ability to drive and change the dynamic of a game, and can do that with passing as well.
“The more he improves that ability to get forwards and I think he adds goals to his game as well, and if he can do that you don’t know what he can be.”