West Ham made some wonderful signings in the summer, bringing in the likes Felipe Anderson, Lukasz Fabianski and Issa Diop but one of the most significant pieces of business they’ve done this season is tying Declan Rice down to a new contract.
The youngster only turned 20-years-old a few days after his match-winning performance against Arsenal, where he scored the only goal of the game as the Hammers secured a 1-0 victory over Unai Emery’s men, and he has a huge future ahead of him.
Going into this season, Rice was in the final year of his contract and there were huge worries that he could leave for free in the upcoming summer, with Arsenal, rather ironically, one of the teams who were interested in signing him.
Instead, the defender-turned-midfielder put pen-to-paper on a five-and-a-half-year contract extension, thus ensuring that he’ll either be a Hammer for years to come or, in the worst case scenario for West Ham fans, he’ll fetch a huge transfer fee if he does move elsewhere.
Those who are interested in football betting, such as those who use the guts sportsbook, will be well aware that West Ham have some very winnable games coming up in the near future and with the likes of Anderson and Rice performing so well, they could well make a march up the table and get themselves into contention for a Europa League spot.
Rice, who is yet to decide if he’ll play for England or the Republic of Ireland at international level, has been outstanding all season and credit must go to Manuel Pellegrini for showing faith in the youngster and selecting him ahead of some more established names.
Now he’s ended all speculation about his future, at least for the rest of the season, it will not be a surprise if he is even better in the second half of the campaign.
