West Ham manager David Moyes has conceded for the first time that Declan Rice is likely to leave the club this summer.
The Scot, who led West Ham to a 2-1 win over AZ Alkmaar in the first leg of their Europa Conference League semi-final clash on Thursday, has always maintained that the club are not looking to sell their best players, despite ongoing speculation about Rice’s future.
Moyes has even said that interested parties will need to part ways with at least £100m to have any chance of luring Rice away from London Stadium – he’ll have two years remaining on his contract at the end of the season.
90min has extensively reported on interest in Rice over recent months. Manchester City are among those considering a move this summer, as they plan for life after Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva, while Arsenal are also a potential landing spot for the England midfielder.
Chelsea and Manchester United also hold an interest in Rice, as do Liverpool – they are looking to sign three midfielders this summer but are leaning towards making Brighton’s Alexis Mac Allister their first acquisition.
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West Ham could qualify for next season’s Europa League if they are able to beat AZ and then Fiorentina or Basel in the Conference League final, but even that achievement is unlikely to match Rice’s ambitions. He has previously stated that he wants to play in the Champions League to test himself against the best players in the world.
The Hammers have known for a while that cashing in on Rice may be their only option, and Moyes has admitted publicly that his time at the club may be drawing to an end.
“We honestly hope he stays,” Moyes said. “We’d love for him to be a West Ham player but we are aware that might not be the case at the end of the season. So that’s one of the scenarios around planning. There are plans that we have Dec here but we’re also fully aware there is a good chance we won’t have him.”
He continued: “The planning has been on the back burner. It’s always been about making sure you’re a Premier League club. Your planning will go completely if you weren’t. A lot of it will only start to go into place once we’ve realised we have kept our Premier League place.
“We’re watching a lot of players, a lot of games, doing a lot of scouting, but truth is the focus has been on staying in the Premier League. We brought in a big number of players last summer so I see this summer more as tinkering and bits and pieces being done here…
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