David Moyes drops ominous club captain hint for next season when Declan Rice was substituted off for West Ham.
West Ham cruised through to the Europa Conference League semi-finals against Gent tonight, and Declan Rice put in a standout performance – shock horror.
The 24-year-old scored a truly unbelievable solo goal after running half the length of the pitch to put the Hammers 3-1 up, before David Moyes took him off in the 70th minute.
Dec relinquished the captain’s armband and handed it over to Tomas Soucek.
Hopefully that’s not a hint from Moyes as to who’s in line to take over from Rice when he leaves the London Stadium…
Moyes drops ominous captain hint when Declan Rice was substituted off for West Ham
When Rice left the pitch, there were still plenty of experienced players out there including the likes of Vladimir Coufal, Nayef Aguerd and Jarrod Bowen.
Yet Soucek was handed the captain’s armband.
We all know just how much Moyes loves the 28-year-old midfielder, and he plays him week in, week out.
The Czech Republic international is the captain of his country and wore the armband for Slavia Prague as well.
So he clearly has very good leadership skills. What worries me about the prospect of Soucek being captain next season though is that he will be even more of a shoo-in to start every game, in spite of his obvious limitations.
When the 28-year-old plays, he slows us down so much in transition, and if we are to make genuine progress as a club, he really does need to be moved on this summer in my opinion.
So the fact that he took the West Ham captain’s armband when Declan Rice left the pitch tonight is a huge worry as far as I’m concerned.
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