Everyone is saying the same thing about youngster Freddie Potts after his third appearance for West Ham in the win over AEK Larnaca.
Hammers News predicted academy midfielder Potts would get some action in the match ahead of Thursday night’s second leg after he was pictured in training.
And so it proved as he came on for Tomas Soucek in the 69th minute.
West Ham have a long and proud history of producing players through their famed academy.
David Moyes has been known to use some European games to give young West Ham youngsters a taste of first team action.
That continued in the 6-0 aggregate cruise against the 10 men of Larnaca with Potts, Divin Mubama and Levi Laing making second half appearances.
Mubama scored his first official senior goal for West Ham and Laing looked comfortable – albeit untested.
But the son of West Ham legend Steve Potts stood out for one very specific reason.
Everyone is saying the same thing about youngster Potts after his third appearance for West Ham.
Everyone is saying the same thing about youngster Freddie Potts after his third appearance for West Ham
The midfielder, who is brother to former Hammer Dan, played in last season’s Europa League clash with Dinamo Zagreb and came on as a substitute in the 3-0 away win against FCSB in the group stages.
But as he took his place in midfield against Larnaca everyone noticed something about Potts – he looks, plays and carries himself just like captain Declan Rice.
The commentators on BT Sport pointed it out, saying supporters could be forgiven for thinking Potts was Rice. And social media was awash with West Ham fans saying how eerily similar Potts looked to Rice.
With the skipper expected to leave West Ham in the summer, many pointed out that it bodes well the club may have a ready-made replacement.
That might be jumping the gun a touch as Potts looked as though he may benefit from a spell out on loan.
But there is no denying the clear and striking similarities between how Rice plays, moves, receives the ball and carries himself and what we saw from Potts.
From a distance the duo look almost identical. A quick search of social media shows a multitude of fans comparing the duo with many saying Potts is a “Rice regeneration”.
When Potts develops physically – as Rice did – West Ham could have their heir apparent right under their noses and it won’t cos the club a penny.