Is Declan Rice the academy player West Ham fans have been waiting for?

For the last few years, West Ham, fans have been crying out the ‘next big thing’. Could Declan Rice be the answer to their prayers?

The academy of football is a nickname that is still used by West Ham fans. But in truth it has been a while since we produced much of real quality. James Tomkins and Junior Stanislas are still in the Premier League at different clubs, but there hasn’t been much product in the last ten years.

Reece Burke looked like he could make a breakthrough, but seems to have stalled. The jury is still out on Josh Cullen as he needs some more time to find his feet around the first team, and Reece Oxford does need to make sure he’s approaching his careers in the right mindset. At the moment it’s a real 50/50 if he comes through to make the career that seemed laid out at his feet.

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But Declan Rice could well buck the trend. Another mature and assured performance at centreback from the young Irishman is not the crowning glory of his season, but merely now what seems par for the course. Maybe having more media lauded teammates allowed him to develop in peace.

He has done exceptionally well this year internationally as well. He was awarded U19 Irish player of the year, and was recently called up to the Irish 1st team. There he put in a MOTM performance, and it didn’t seem to faze him. What seems so good about Rice, is the fact that football comes so naturally to him at the moment.

I hope that continues, because there are many young players who don’t make it. They get caught up in their own hype, or change the way they play at a late stage. Rice must stay true to what got him here, because he didn’t look out of place. With Ogbonna inside him and Zabaleta on his right he looked comfortable on the Stamford Bridge pitch.

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If he continues his current trajectory we will be fending off interest in coming seasons. He is young, down to earth and by all accounts an easy guy to get on with. We here at Green St Hammers wish him all the best, and believe that he could be the next shining light to come out of the West Ham academy.