Everton have emerged as the latest team to be interested in a move for exciting West Ham United teenager Declan Rice, according to the Express.
The newspaper claims that Marco Silva’s side are looking at the 19-year-old, whose future with the Hammers remains unclear amidst what the Telegraph reports is a contract dispute.
However, the Express’s report states that Manchester United are the frontrunners for Rice’s signature, with the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund also keen on the player.
Rice has emerged as one of the most exciting young talents in English football over the last year or so, and manager Manuel Pellegrini would surely be loath to lose him.
OPINION
It’s a little surprising to see Everton linked with Rice. When teams the size of United, Liverpool and Arsenal are being linked with a player you kind of figure it’d be unlikely that said player ends up at Goodison Park. Everton are a fine club, of course, just not at the level of the aforementioned trio. Nor do they offer the cultural alternative that Dortmund do. However, the Toffees have shown in recent transfer windows that they are extremely ambitious, so in that sense you’d expect them to be linked with an exciting, young talent like Rice. West Ham won’t want anything to do with any of these teams’ interest in the midfielder, though. The teenager has emerged as a key part of Pellegrini’s team and the Chilean won’t want him to go anywhere. His contract situation is alarming, though, and the Hammers do need to get him tied down as quickly as possible.
