London [United Kingdom], May 13 : The 24-year-old English defensive midfielder Declan Rice is likely to leave at the end of this season according to West Ham United manager David Moyes.
Rice has become one of the hottest prospects after his consistent performances for West Ham United in the past two seasons. Rice is not a player who scores or creates a lot of goals, he sits in front of the defensive line and acts as a shield to provide further protection.
His defensive stats in the 2022/23 Premier League season speaks volume about the quality he possesses. The English midfielder has made 467 tackles with a 55% success rate. Along with this, he has made 1,513 recoveries, 310 clearances and 340 interceptions.
Since he came into the limelight, Rice has been linked with top European clubs for the entire season. Moyes believes that even though the club wants him to stay, Rice could still end up with a different club before the next season begins.
"We honestly hope he stays. 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," said Moyes as quoted by Sky Sports.
"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."
His future could also depend on whether West Ham are able to survive in the Premier League. They managed to escape the relegation zone after producing a 1-0 victory against Manchester United last weekend.
If West Ham fails to keep their position in the Premier League, they will end up losing a majority of their star players. Due to this West Ham are more focused on surviving in the league rather than looking to extend Declan's stay.
"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 the truth is the focus has been on staying in the Premier League," David Moyes concluded.
West Ham will return to on-field action on Sunday against Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium.
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