Rice is easily one of West Ham's best players, I'm not sure why some are so critical of him.

46 minutes ago, evissy said:

Usually captain types do. Haven't seen Rice play that much though. Everything that is said about him makes me think he works his ass off every game. 

Henderson gels that side. For me he isn't the most talented footballer nor anything special, he just demands everyone to do better and go full out all the time. 

You’re right Henderson is just a tryer, a team man, In footballing term he is nothing special at all 

17 minutes ago, SFL82 said:

You’re right Henderson is just a tryer, a team man, In footballing term he is nothing special at all 

Put him in a worse side and he would struggle to lead things from midfield. For me he was the reason England lost to Croatia in that world Cup game.

I'd welcome Rice at Chelsea.  I think we lack (or have lacked) physicality in recent years and would like a little more power in the middle of the pitch.

2 hours ago, evissy said:

Usually captain types do. Haven't seen Rice play that much though. Everything that is said about him makes me think he works his ass off every game. 

Henderson gels that side. For me he isn't the most talented footballer nor anything special, he just demands everyone to do better and go full out all the time. 

He leads by example, yes but even if he leaves, there wouldn't exactly be much of a difference for Pool.

14 hours ago, bisright1 said:

when you are implying walkers height is the reason he can't play in defence, then yes. 

Southgate is a bad manager because he played walker at cb is different to southgate is a bad manager because he played a 5 foot 8 walker at cb. 

The height was a key point, but Azpilicueta is also an anomaly and should not be compared to Kyle Walker whatsoever, surprised so many people are doing that. Azpi until recently has been one of the best defenders in the league for years, one of our most consistent performers, as a CB he obviously suffered in teh air but he had many defensive attributes that compensated that. Kyle Walker doesn't, that's why I'm making this point, it was a stupid move from Southgate and they paid the price dearly when Croatia scored all their goals from his area. 

 

Rice looking okay for West Ham. 

Mark Noble is pretty much redundant with Rice on the pitch. 

West Ham are such a pointless football club, even worse since they moved to the sh*thole. Rice must be desperate for Chelsea to sort something out.

Rice does all the basics right is what I’ve taken from tonight - He doesn’t do anything spectacular, just the basics. I suppose that is what you want from a defensive midfielder.

I also feel he can do much better than West Ham, they are holding him back. He need to push for a transfer or it won’t happen this year.

after west hams game today be might be begging to leave soon lol.

I don’t know which game you guys watched. I saw Rice give the ball away twice in the first 30 minutes. The second time Shelvey should have scored for Newcastle.   I’ll keep watching maybe he gets better. 

On 11 August, the first #Chelsea official bid (£50M) was rejected by West Ham. The second bid (£50+add ons) the same. 
#CFC is still trying, Declan #Rice is still a target as midfielder, 
but not at the price West Ham ask: £75M. @SkySport #Transfers

Then late in h1 he loses the ball again  goes in too hard to get it back and gets injured. Then in h2 he does a great cross field ball only to have it sail over the touch line. In between all that he made a couple of nice passes and moved the ball around steadily. He spent a lot of time pointing to what everyone else should be doing. 
 

he certainly talks and gestures a lot and clearly has a nice touch but showing how little I know I much prefer Kovacic and Kante. 

He was so poor against Newcastle’s press. He looked lost however there is no doubt he would be surrounded by far superior players. West Ham are absolutely awful. 

75 millions for this mediocre player? Are they nuts? We shouldn't even negotiate with them, let him rot there, the next year they will sell him for less or he will reveal himself as a bust and nobody would want him. 

I really don't see why we would want him. He looked bang average against Newcastle last night......actually, I would go as far as to say that he looked quite sh*t. He will have better games than he did last night, but I don't see anything in his game that makes him a top 4 or even top 6 player.

1 minute ago, Scott Harris said:

I really don't see why we would want him. He looked bang average against Newcastle last night......actually, I would go as far as to say that he looked quite sh*t. He will have better games than he did last night, but I don't see anything in his game that makes him a top 4 or even top 6 player.

He looked slower than Jorginho too when running back, id much rather see how Ampadu develops. Considering what Rice would cost aswell we could get use the funds much better elsewhere.

31 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

I really don't see why we would want him. He looked bang average against Newcastle last night......actually, I would go as far as to say that he looked quite sh*t. He will have better games than he did last night, but I don't see anything in his game that makes him a top 4 or even top 6 player.

He looked to me like a player that really really didn't want to be there and you can't blame him with how bad things are at West ham. 

If we're signing him to play mainly at CB then I'm all for it. Think he could be a top CB. As a defensive midfielder there are probably better options out there for the reported fee.

24 minutes ago, dkw said:

He looked to me like a player that really really didn't want to be there and you can't blame him with how bad things are at West ham. 

I don't buy that idea. If you are paid the amounts he is paid to do his job and if he is a professional player and a leader in their group he would absolutely do his best. Even if WHU are shambles you do everything in your power to win. 

If Declan knows we are very close to signing him I would understand if he is not 100% focused. In that case I would question Moyes' merits as a manager. Which I do at times but not this way. 

Not quite sure why we want him given we have Jorginho, Kova, Gilmore and Kante. Think we’re overloaded at DM already. 

Edited September 13, 20205 yr by JM7

Newcastle isn't exactly a top half team and yet Rice didn't influence the game in any way. I've said before that if we want more creativity we shouldn't expect it to come from Rice as he isn't a good passer at all and this game also showed it.

But yes he is taller than our DMs and weights more... When it comes to his skills I'm not sure if he's a top player.

1 hour ago, evissy said:

I don't buy that idea. If you are paid the amounts he is paid to do his job and if he is a professional player and a leader in their group he would absolutely do his best. Even if WHU are shambles you do everything in your power to win. 

Doesn't work like that though does it. We've seen with Chelsea more than once in the Roman era that the players aren't performing because, usually, they've lost faith in the manager. 

West Ham are a mess right now and by all reports morale is very low throughout their squad. Their fans have lost all faith in the club too. 

If Chelsea push for Rice he's probably going to push to leave because regardless of being made captain there isn't a future for him there. It's just a case of when, not if, Rice leaves. 

Let's wait for West Ham to get relegated and pick him up for £10m.