Pundit believes Declan Rice must leave West Ham to match England stars

Former Premier League midfielder Andy Townsend believes Declan Rice may have to leave West Ham in order to emulate previous England icons. 

The 23-year-old is perennially linked with a move away from the London Stadium and following the weekend’s FA Cup exploits the transfer talk has ramped up. 

Ex-Liverpool man turned pundit Danny Murphy suggested that Rice’s strike was ‘phenomenal’ and ‘like watching Steven Gerrard’. 

Speaking on talkSPORT (February 7 2022), former Aston Villa ace Townsend claimed that the Iron would have to leave to match the likes of Gerrard or Frank Lampard. 

“The truth of the matter is, he is only going to reach those levels if he moves. He can only do that if he is playing for a City, or Liverpool, or one of the clubs that are, at the moment, right in the thick of things to win everything. That is the only way he is ever going to be compared to guys like that.”

This season Rice has scored four times and provided four assists in 29 appearances – better than the three direct goal contributions from last term. 

Whilst it’s never a pleasant conversation to have, unfortunately, it’s a realistic one. 

West Ham have shown signs of significant improvement over the last 24 months and a genuine top-four tilt remains on the cards this season.

However, a failure to strengthen the ranks in January could come back and hurt David Moyes’ side further down the line when European action gets back underway. 

Qualify for the UEFA Champions League via the Premier League or Europa League and the £67.5million valued midfielder is an Iron in 2022/23. 

Don’t, who knows.