Arsenal signed Declan Rice from West Ham United in the summer transfer window for a whopping £105 million fee.
West Ham cashed in on Declan Rice and allowed him to join Arsenal in the end, after protracted negotiations rumbled on for months.
Hammers boss David Moyes has worked wonders since Dec left the London Stadium. The Scot brought in Edson Alvarez, James Ward-Prowse, Konstantinos Mavropanos and Mohammed Kudus for just £15 million more than what the Gunners paid for Rice.
And without coming across as bitter, it could be argued that West Ham are better as a team with the players that Moyes brought in after the 24-year-old’s exit.
Some Hammers fans will applaud Rice when he comes back, some will boo him and some won’t give him any kind of recognition whatsoever. One thing I will say about the whole situation is that I did not like how he tried to angle for a move away from West Ham during the World Cup in the winter, with his comments on wanting to play Champions League football.
I know there were plenty of Hammers fans who were fuming with the midfielder when he left East London. But how did ‘Mr West Ham’ Mark Noble feel about the situation?
Declan Rice shares what Mark Noble said to him when his Arsenal move was confirmed
The 24-year-old England international has been speaking exclusively to Four Four Two about life at the Emirates.
And he responded when asked what some of his teammates told him when he made the switch from East to North London.
Rice focused on Noble’s message to him:
“It is nothing more than you deserve.”
Listen, Rice was incredible for us over the six years that he played for the senior team. He went from strength to strength over the past few years and become one of the very best players in world football in his position.
I don’t begrudge him moving on to a club where he can feasibly win major honours over the next few years. As I mentioned earlier though, I just didn’t like the way he went about it with his comments out in Qatar.
Declan Rice joining Arsenal in the summer transfer window was something that West Ham could do nothing about in the end. The 24-year-old reached a level here we as a club could no longer match his ambition.
And it will be very interesting to see how he gets on with the Gunners over the next few years. As Noble says, he deserved a move to a top Premier League club. Now the onus is very much on him to prove that he made the right decision by moving to the Emirates.