The Rice situation

[Come On You Irons]

"For me, Rice is part of the problem this season. He comes across as far too immature to lead a struggling team on the pitch and doesn't have natural leadership qualities. His body language is way off, it comes across as he doesn't want to be at the club any longer (which is no doubt true) and his form is seriously in decline. He was very lucky not to give away a penalty yesterday with his casual dawdling on the ball in his team's own penalty area. Basic schoolboy level mistakes that a professional international footballer should not be making. I think Roy Keane was correct in his assessment of Rice the other week when he says he doesn't do enough to justify the hype. The more the season goes on, the more it looks like it was a mistake by the club to let Rice run down his contract and contribute to a toxic environment this season. In hindsight, we should have sold him last summer when he still had a premium value."

[swindon hammer]

"Unfortunately I don’t think we will get the 80-100 million in cash we were hoping for so I would imagine it will be more likely be 40/50 million plus some players in exchange. Looking at the teams most likely interested and the players they would likely let go as part of the deal. Man Utd - McTominay/Maguire/Van De Beek/Martial Arsenal - Smith Rowe (Loan), Holding Chelsea - Loftus Cheek, Gallagher, Broja Man City - Phillips, Cole Palmer (Loan)"

[Vexed]

He's doing a Scott Parker!

[Stowie.40]

"He has had a poor season with flashes of quality like at Newcastle & Liverpool where he stood out like a sore thumb. Should we have sold him? Maybe but it would have been even more upheaval last summer and we fucked it up so selling him on top would have been a disaster. Would anyone really have wanted moyes & Newman to spend the Rice money with the shit they‚Äôve bought?. But he does seem to have given up which is unforgivable and when your best player does that it‚Äôs curtains, again all on the cսnt in charge not having a clue how to build or manage a squad. Must admit though as good as he is personally think he comes across as a bit of a knob and the comments in the WC was stupid."

[RBshorty]

Rice knows he’s going in the summer. We all know Rice is going in the summer. The guy is treading water. Sure. Is it a problem. You bet. Will it be the difference between staying up and dropping down.? Nope. Not even close. Plenty of other fish need frying before we even worry about Rice.!

[swindon hammer]

"Selling him last summer was never an option even in retrospect. If we had done so there would have been a huge outcry and demonstrations. Rice hasn’t been at his best this season. There’s no argument about that. I think there are a few reasons for his loss of form. 1. The rest of the team have been shit which means whenever he has an off day there hasn’t been anyone else to pick up the slack. 2. This is his first official season as Captain without his mentor Mark Noble being around. We can dispute all we want about Noble’s effectiveness on the pitch but around the dressing room he was massive. Unfortunately we have a real lack of leaders in the current squad so Rice is almost Captain by default and maybe he has felt the pressure of the role. 3. He’s probably in need of a rest. Yes I know he’s a professional footballer who’s paid fortunes but since breaking into the England team and between the Euro’s, World Cup & Nations League he’s barely had a month off for over 2 years. After Thursday’s game he will be off again with England for 2 games. He’s the one player in our squad we don’t rotate."

[bobbymoore]

"ah, now we're turning on Rice.... fucking cretins"

[GreenStreetPlayer]

"From my untrained eye Rice is giving up, but he is not alone. The manager has lost the dressing room, the players are going through the motions. Effort wise, I would say we are playing around 70%. We are definitely going down as long as Moyes stays, he is the problem."

[El Scorchio]

"southbankbornnbred 2:15 Completely agree. And this is why ANY management change would help us at the moment. It doesn't have to be a 'name' or on Sullivan's stupid checklist of criteria. We just need some fresh ideas and things shaking up, and you'll see motivated and committed players. They are resigned to their fate as we are, at this point, Moyes gives them no hope. ANY new manager or fresh point of view would give them hope and impetus. Even the current coaching staff would mix things up a bit, I am sure. I can't believe they aren't every bit as frustrated with the manager as us and the players are. I genuinely think if they just promoted Nolan or make Noble caretaker that we'd see a difference just because it's a change. Look at when Sir Trevor stepped in in those circumstances when Roeder was taken ill. It was one or two games too late to alter our fate, but the players responded to him and the change and slightly different ideas. And that he bought Paolo back in from the cold to almost rescue us."

[Vexed]

"Quite liked that he got in a few faces and showed that he was genuinely pissed off, but performances have been poor especially the last two games and he's not captain material at this moment. There are many worse players out there each week though and Rice is probably catching more flack because we know he's capable of much more after being shielded by this for so long. Clearly pissed off with the manager, clearly been touting himself about which is pretty unforgiveable given our situation. Just another part of the compendium of things Moyes has fucked up this season. This feels like relegation........."

[Vexed]

"Quite liked that he got in a few faces and showed that he was genuinely pissed off, but performances have been poor especially the last two games and he's not captain material at this moment. There are many worse players out there each week though and Rice is probably catching more flack because we know he's capable of much more after being shielded by this for so long. Clearly pissed off with the manager, clearly been touting himself about which is pretty unforgiveable given our situation. Just another part of the compendium of things Moyes has fucked up this season. This feels like relegation........."

[New Jersey]

"If Rice was poor, fuck knows what that makes Kehrer, Soucek, Ings etc. Thought he was ok yesterday but he clearly is getting pissed off with Moyes and his dinosaur tactics and chronic inability to change things."

[Iron Duke]

"Whenever we get a class player, we get gaslighted by the top-6 bias media that they are average. Every mistake or shortfall gets highlighted. This helps them get transferred for a cut-price fee. Suddenly at one of the big clubs, the player then becomes world class. Of course it helps that they are then with better players and coaches. It's no coincidence that England have reached a final and semi-final with rice in the team."

[southbankbornnbred]

"He was poor yesterday, like most of our players. But I don't see any wider problem with Rice. Some fans are reaching for problems because we all know, in all likelihood, that he's off in the summer. So he's not likely to be a West Ham player after this season. It doesn't mean he's given up. Like most players, I think he's really struggling with Moyes - they even had a row beside the pitch in front of everybody. It's pretty obvious what the problem is - and Rice is not the only player struggling with our archaic, dinosaur-like approach to 'football'. Change the manager and you will get a different response from some (not all) of the players."

[Side of Ham]

How you are supposed to captain a team that is expected to let the opposition have the ball I don’t know…..it kind of leads to its own conclusion….

[Far Cough]

"I'm not going to suck Rice off, I'll call it as I see it, yesterday he was fucking shit, along with the rest of them, and I don't like that pointing he does either."

[Jaan Kenbrovin]

"Imagine what Moyes would have done with the money if we sold Rice in the summer. Without Rice we’d be comfortably bottom and cut adrift, with 300m worth of new players scratching their heads, wondering how they ended up sitting on the bench so much at such a pony run club."

[El Scorchio]

LT- completely agree. There is/was no-one else.

[Lee Trundle]

"Exactly, El Scorch. If there was a stand out candidate, then it might we worth discussing, but there isn't. And as you said, he was captain on the pitch last season, so there would have been some discontent had that been taken away from him."

[New Jersey]

"We will see how much he's over-rated when the top clubs come in for him this summer, most likely be Arsenal who look like they are going to win the Premiership. Keane is just a bitter cսnt because Rice turned Eire down. Let's see Declan who do you want to play for next year, David Moyes or Mikel Arteta? Trouble is we won't reinvest the money wisely like Brighton do!"

[El Scorchio]

"Lee Trundle 1:32 he was already the captain on the pitch for at least a full season, only giving the band to Noble as 'club captain' on the rare occasions he came on as a sub or started a game. Clearly gave him the armband long ago to try and demonstrate we wanted him to stay. Taking it away from him at the start of this season wouldn't have helped anyone. You're right though, such is the state of our squad that the obvious candidates rarely play and of those that are guaranteed a regular start.... Soucek? Zouma? Fabianski is the only other I can think of, but goalie as a captain is pointless. Rice really was the only option regardless."

[ted fenton]

I really think the problem here is Moyes he seems to have lost the dressing room Paqueta being taken off yesterday and walking straight down the tunnel yes he came back but walked off again at the final whistle.....As for Scamacca Moyes says the £35.5m striker's 'physical data' is falling short of his standards ! well who's fault is that ? Rice seems to have had a belly full of Moyes and his attitude shows that he can't wait to move on. Any other club would have sacked Moyes by now but the dwarf looking Russian wishes to keep his hands in his pockets.

[Lee Trundle]

"Who else would you have chosen last summer? Personally, I wouldn't have a player who planned his transfer ahead as someone who is captain but there was little to choose from to replace Noble. The 2 ""elders"", in Ogbonna and Cresswell, barely play."

[El Scorchio]

"Pedro 'He also perhaps falls into tying too hard / trying to do everything category.' Exactly this. He clearly cares deeply and is absolutely frustrated with how things are going. It's plain to see from his actions and words on and off the pitch. He's fed up with the manager and some of his team mates. Typified by when it was he who had to run about 40 yards to their cսnt goalkeeper to close him down and get him to stop timewasting, because no-one else in front of him thought to do it. He might want away, but he's not switched off and he's still trying. And yes we'll miss him when he's gone, and yes he will be a top player in a top team."

[Pedro]

Captains on the field don’t really have a huge impact nowadays. We need leaders all across the pitch. It might the bits he has to do off the field that take getting used to and taking up more effort than expected. He also perhaps falls into tying too hard / trying to do everything category. Taking corners reminds me of when Kane took them for England. I would hope that is a Moyes decision but why have one of our best headers of the ball by the corner flag? His delivery is also not great.

[Russ of the BML]

"I disagree. Like the fans, Rice has been Moyes'd."