---
title: "Mills heaps praise on Rice for England display – how far can he go?"
canonical: "https://readwestham.com/2019/09/10/mills-heaps-praise-on-rice-for-england-display-how-far-can-he-go/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Alex Turk"
section: "Feature Writers"
published: "2019-09-10T05:00:20Z"
modified: "2019-09-10T05:00:20Z"
---

# Mills heaps praise on Rice for England display – how far can he go?

Former Manchester City and England has heaped praise on Declan Rice’s rise from Chelsea, to West Ham United’s academy, to becoming one of the brightest midfield prospects in Europe.

Rice started and played 90 minutes for England in Saturday’s 4-0 victory over Bulgaria, and caught the eye of many by doing an impressive job as the holding midfielder in Gareth Southgate’s system.

Speaking exclusively to [Football Insider](https://www.footballinsider247.com/awful-lot-of-quality-exclusive-danny-mills-dazzled-by-incredibly-important-west-ham-star/) following the Bulgaria win, Mills could only say good things about Rice, pinpointing his defensive roots as a key reason he’s so efficient in his current role:

> As a natural defender, he’s quite happy to play that role. That’s what he’s good at. He has an awful lot of quality on the ball. We know how good he can be.

> It takes an awful lot of discipline to play that role, be happy to sit there and not want to venture forward, not want to score goals and be that creative player.

> He’s prepared to drop off and do his job. That’s incredibly important. He’s clearly one for the future, we know that.

![Michael Regan/Getty Images Sport](https://media.readwestham.com/readwestham/2019/09/1171739271.jpg)

### Read West Ham’s verdict

The role Rice plays for England is very similar to what he has to do at West Ham, so by doing it week-in-week-out against the best opposition is making him the class player he is.

It’s unbelievable how calming his presence is at such a young age and the sky really is the limit for him, maybe at West Ham, or maybe amongst Europe’s best.

There’s no doubting Rice could enter plenty of the European heavyweights’ squads at the moment and clinch a starting spot.

It’s very likely there will continue to be interest in his services from huge clubs, but he seems intent on helping West Ham reach the level they need to be playing at.