PRAGUE — Declan Rice could not have a picked a better way to bow out than by lifting the Conference League trophy in front of thousands of adoring West Ham fans. Rarely do footballers leave a club on perfect terms; Rice categorically will.
At the end of his one and only campaign as official club captain, the 24-year-old has joined two icons, Bobby Moore and Billy Bonds, in the exclusive group of players to lead the Hammers to a major trophy.
Regardless of where he may end up next season, Rice’s legacy is secure; he will always be a West Ham legend.
Watching one of their own lift the trophy made it that much sweeter for West Ham supporters. Rice has been at the club since the age of 14 after being released by Chelsea.
The club and its fans are proud of West Ham’s history of developing young prospects and while the Academy of Football production line has slowed in recent years, Rice is proof of what can be achieved when coaching meets application, dedication and talent.
The late 1990s and early 2000s was a golden age of West Ham’s academy: Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, Joe Cole, Michael Carrick and Glen Johnson all came through during that period and all went on to enjoy glittering careers littered with silverware.
The difference between them and Rice is that they won their winners’ medals elsewhere; that marks him out as the club’s most significant player in decades. They will miss him dearly.
West Ham fans have done all they can to try and persuade Rice to stick around. “One more year, one more year, Declan Rice,” grew exponentially to “10 more years, 10 more years,” in Prague’s Letna Park fan zone and again in the Eden Arena as they made one last plea to their hero to stick around in east London for a little longer.
Understandably eager to not taint West Ham’s biggest party in decades, Rice refused to confirm whether it was his last appearance when interviewed after the game, but the secret has been open for some time. He will be playing elsewhere next season.
“There’s a lot of speculation about my future,” Rice told BT Sport. “There’s interest from other clubs but ultimately I’ve still got two years left at West Ham. I love this club, I love playing for this club, there hasn’t been nothing yet, so my focus is on playing for West Ham, enjoying tonight and let’s see what happens.
“I’m captain of this club, I absolutely love it to pieces. I cannot speak highly enough of this place, so…yeah, let’s just see what happens. Who knows? Who knows?”
David Moyes acknowledged as much last month and West Ham owner David Sullivan confirmed that he would be allowed to leave the morning after the night before. “We promised him he could go, he set his heart on going,” he told TalkSport on Thursday. “You can’t ask for a man who has committed more to us this season.”
West Ham’s loss will be another club’s gain, be it Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Manchester United or someone else. Rice has evolved into a complete midfielder over the past couple of years, adding driving runs and more goals to his repertoire.
He attempted 63 dribbles in the Premier League last season, a total bettered by only five other central midfielders in the division, and scored as many goals in 2022-23 as he managed in the previous three campaigns combined. It is an area you suspect he will continue to improve upon.
That hasn’t unduly affected his defensive numbers either. Rice won possession 334 times in the league, more than any other player.
“We’ve seen the effect that Casemiro and Rodri can have on Manchester United and City, I put Declan right next to them,” Joe Cole told i before the final. “That’s how good he is. He’s got more strings to his bow than those two, he’s more athletic.”
Replacing Rice’s impact will be a huge challenge, even if West Ham receive £100m plus for him, but for now the East End carnival is in full swing. This is no time to fret about the future; savouring the present will do just fine for the coming weeks and months.
It’s difficult to imagine Moyes will leave now
It was of course a night for all of West Ham’s players, not just the one in the No 41 shirt. Match-winner Jarrod Bowen, a poster boy of the club’s progress during Moyes’ second spell, was a fitting hero. Michail Antonio has dedicated a decade of his career to West Ham. Tomas Soucek and Vladimir Coufal won a major trophy in the stadium that was once their second home.
And for Moyes too, who clung onto his job during a fretful Premier League campaign and justified his bosses’ faith in the most emphatic way imaginable. It was impossible to not feel pleased for the Scot as he jigged jubilantly on the turf in front of West Ham fans who will forever hold him on a pedestal.
The most touching moment of the post-match celebrations was when Moyes carefully removed his winners’ medal – his only winners’ medal in over 1,000 games as a manager – and placed it around his 87-year-old dad David Sr’s neck.
“He was the first one, I thought I should get it round his neck,” he said. “He’s watched a lot over the years and I hope he enjoyed it.”
Moyes deserved this as much as anyone. And like Rice, he is the master of his own destiny, with Sullivan saying “as long as he wants to remain the manager, he will remain the manager of West Ham”.
It seems unfathomable to consider that he will not stay on next season after overseeing one of the greatest nights in West Ham’s history.
