Rice's departure may have been sealed after Hammers' European exit

Without wishing to pour a salt mine into a gaping wound, it’s time to talk about Declan Rice.

It’s time to discuss whether his departure comes with this defeat. Whether his head is turned by those suitors this summer. Whether that’s the cost of West Ham’s failure to secure Champions League football by winning the Europa League.

Rice so badly wanted to represent this club in Europe’s elite competition. He was beating his chest after Aaron Cresswell’s early red card, doing his best to encourage his team-mates into believing all was not lost at Eintracht Frankfurt’s Deutsche Bank Park.

It was, unfortunately, and West Ham may well lose Rice after this, too. What awaits is a summer of speculation, news reports, social media rumours and, most worryingly, bids landing in their inbox.

Rice has turned down three new deals from West Ham – the latest one apparently worth £200,000 a week. He’s contracted until 2024, and the club can extend that to 2025, but here in Frankfurt, they lost their most crucial bargaining chip – the ability to offer him the biggest stage to showcase his talents.

West Ham aren’t fools – they know full well that Rice’s future is a hot topic. The club are obligated to put forward a player for every Europa League pre-match press conference but in their last 10 outings, they’ve not used the England international.

We’ve had Alex Kral, Vladimir Coufal, Tomas Soucek, Pablo Fornals, Mark Noble, Cresswell, Michail Antonio, Jarrod Bowen, even on-loan goalkeeper Alphonse Areola – twice.

But not the armband wearer ahead of any of West Ham’s Europa League knockout ties.

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Rice did speak after winning the Premier League Player of the Year