Declan Rice

**DeLorean** · 04/01/2018, 11:29 PM

Getting rave reviews for his performance at Wembley tonight. He also picked up a man of the match award (although I'm not sure who selected the particular one he's referring to) - https://twitter.com/_DeclanRice/stat...51878691753985

**liamoo11** · 07/01/2018, 1:09 PM

nice to ser cullen start with rice today

**Olé Olé** · 07/01/2018, 1:56 PM

Originally Posted by liamoo11

nice to ser cullen start with rice today

Wow. Beside Kouyate and Obiang which demonstrates that it isn't a second choice team. Ayew and Hernandez up front and Ogbonna and Reid at the back with Rice. Great to see Moyes give him a lash.

**liamoo11** · 07/01/2018, 3:46 PM

burke is playing as well there seems to be suggestion that burke and cullen were called back to decide if they will sell them in this window. tink oxford was supposed to come back as well from germany but no sign of him today always thought he looked a talent

**tetsujin1979** · 07/01/2018, 3:51 PM

West Ham starlet relives pain of Chelsea rejection: http://www.football365.com/news/west...lsea-rejection

**Olé Olé** · 07/01/2018, 4:29 PM

Originally Posted by liamoo11

burke is playing as well there seems to be suggestion that burke and cullen were called back to decide if they will sell them in this window. tink oxford was supposed to come back as well from germany but no sign of him today always thought he looked a talent

https://twitter.com/timshires/status...6%7Ctwterm%5E1

Took a kick in the face and lost a couple of teeth. Apparently he was mad to come back on even after that.

Oxford likely to stay in Germany permanently. Mochengladbach and RB Leipzig have bids in. Similar position to Rice so you'd have to imagine his emergence has done it for Oxford.

**liamoo11** · 07/01/2018, 6:41 PM

Originally Posted by Olé Olé

https://twitter.com/timshires/status...6%7Ctwterm%5E1

Took a kick in the face and lost a couple of teeth. Apparently he was mad to come back on even after that.

Oxford likely to stay in Germany permanently. Mochengladbach and RB Leipzig have bids in. Similar position to Rice so you'd have to imagine his emergence has done it for Oxford.

obviously nothing to do with us but cant understand why you would let oxford leave he only turned 19 a few weeks ago surely you look at him as a player to build around at a small club like west ham

**OwlsFan** · 08/01/2018, 10:14 AM

Rice played very well going forward but looked a bit ungamely at times when defending at left full.

**seanfhear** · 09/01/2018, 9:57 AM

Originally Posted by OwlsFan

Rice played very well going forward but looked a bit ungamely at times when defending at left full.

Something often heard of centre backs playing full back throughout history .

**DeLorean** · 26/01/2018, 10:04 AM

England sniffing around - https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/...ss-466314.html

Originally Posted by Gareth Southgate

We are aware of him and aware of his situation.

We are always looking for players and he is somebody whom we know. We are across every young player and, of course, there are plenty of young players with dual nationality.

Wales have several players who have been in our system and who have got caps.

It’s more a question for Dan Ashworth as technical director than for me as senior manager.

**Diggs246** · 26/01/2018, 11:05 AM

I would be confident he will stay with us, seems level headed and honest

**Deckydee** · 26/01/2018, 11:18 AM

Originally Posted by DeLorean

England sniffing around - https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/...ss-466314.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSv0GP0UsH4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feR2iR6U31g

**DeLorean** · 26/01/2018, 11:51 AM

Originally Posted by Diggs246

I would be confident he will stay with us, seems level headed and honest

Going by those interviews, he definitely seems to be honest, to be honest.

**tetsujin1979** · 26/01/2018, 12:59 PM

on Off The Ball last night it was mentioned that Rice corrected a journalist from the London Evening Standard who said something (somewhat sarcastically) "Rice, it's a very Irish name", to which Rice replied "well, yeah, I'm Irish" and that he was looking forward to getting back in with the squad in March

**Kingdom** · 26/01/2018, 1:29 PM

The ironic thing is that it is a very Irish name.

**backstothewall** · 26/01/2018, 4:36 PM

Originally Posted by Kingdom

The ironic thing is that it is a very Irish name.

Very common in South Down and Louth.

**seanfhear** · 26/01/2018, 4:51 PM

Was Pat Rice one that got away....back in the day he was quite a player for Arsenal . Well a good full back .

Players didn’t seem to have the choice in those days mind .

**Olé Olé** · 26/01/2018, 6:19 PM

Originally Posted by seanfhear

Was Pat Rice one that got away....back in the day he was quite a player for Arsenal . Well a good full back .

Players didn’t seem to have the choice in those days mind .

Born in Belfast, grew up in London. Not sure which side of the tracks he's from in Belfast though.

It's funny that some of us are a bit insecure about Rice. Even the headlines in Irish newspapers are grim and erring on the side that he could switch ("Rice wanted by both Ireland and England"- The Irish Mirror, "Ireland face battle with England"- The Indo, "England may snatch Declan Rice from Ireland"- The Times).

A lot of this is borne out of the Grealish episode. That's all quite funny because Rice happily accepted the first chance to come into our senior set-up (unlike Grealish). Also, he seems to be far, far, far more grounded than Grealish was (and Grealish has gone on to prove this subsequent to the episode).

I'm not as worried about Rice as, in retrospect, I should have been about Grealish. I think we have a cracking young lad and cracking young footballer on our hands. And there doesn't seem to be any hints that he has the same kind of influencers that Greailsh when his father and agent were feeding headlines to the papers.