West Ham boss David Moyes has aimed a retort at Roy Keane and Graeme Souness after the stunning Declan Rice solo goal.
From the minute West Ham fans laid eyes on Declan Rice in the first team they knew he was special.
The kid West Ham took a chance on after he was thrown on the football scrapheap by Chelsea aged 14 has blossomed into one of the finest midfielders in the world.
As Hammers fans know only too well the clock is ticking down on the moment Rice likely leaves West Ham this summer.
Indeed there are now just 11 games left for the midfielder – at the most – in the claret and blue if he is – as expected – sold this summer.
Rice has turned down the biggest contract in West Ham history – worth over £80m – which proves this is not about money for him and never has been.
He wants Champions League football and to compete for the top trophies – something only a very select few clubs can guarantee.
Rice helped West Ham keep alive their own hopes of silverware with an amazing goal and captain’s performance as his side came from 1-0 down at home to Gent to win 4-1 – and 5-2 on aggregate.
If Rice is leaving this summer, he certainly left West Ham fans something to remember him by last night.
But his performance also gave his manager ammunition to fire back at his critics – chiefly Roy Keane and Graeme Souness.
Given both were preeminent central midfielders of the game, their words carry weight – and make headlines, as West Ham fans know only too well this season.
Keane and Souness have continually said Rice does not score enough goals and questioned whether he has the required ability.
Rice recently responded saying he feels some of Souness’ criticism in particular is very ‘harsh’ and says he does not watch West Ham enough to understand.
The midfielder plays a very specific and more defensive role for West Ham and England where he doesn’t often have licence to get right up the pitch and in and around the box. But that doesn’t seem to factor into either pundit’s thinking.
The pair will have been silenced by what they saw watching the Hammers make it to their second consecutive European semi-final on Thursday night, though.
And West Ham boss David Moyes has aimed a retort at Keane and Souness after the stunning Rice solo goal.
The Scot has bitten his tongue until now. But he clearly felt this was the moment to respond, saying the likes of Souness and Keane are ‘naive’ for questioning whether Rice has that kind of ability and that they clearly don’t watch him closely enough for West Ham.
“He is some player, great ability and that goal just summed him up tonight,” Moyes said after the game (Football.London).
“If anybody didn’t think that he could do that, then they’re completely naive and don’t watch close enough if that’s the case.
“He is some player and that’s why we value him so highly here.
“He is still young, he will learn a lot of things. He will play differently at times in his career. At the moment, he has got so many parts to his games and he doesn’t always show them, partly because he has got a good personality but he could show it even more, and if he does that you will see so many more aspects to his game.
“A lot of people probably think it isn’t there but let me tell you, it is there.”
Given Souness, Keane and Gary Neville are the only worthwhile pundits who are critical of Rice, this is a clear message aimed squarely at them from Moyes.
It comes after both Steven Gerrard and Troy Deeney also spoke out against Keane and Souness’ criticism as they defended the West Ham talisman recently.
As if you need an excuse, here’s Rice’s wonderful solo goal to enjoy again.
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