OPINION
Manuel Pellegrini must feel smug over being confident that Declan Rice would be able to be an important player for West Ham this season.
The Hammers midfield enforcer previously revealed in an interview with the Daily Mail that after the loss to Liverpool, he felt he wasn’t cut out for the Premier League and was considering asking his manager about going out on loan.
“After the Liverpool game, to be honest with you, I didn’t think I was cut out for the Premier League,” said Rice.
“I wasn’t in the squad for the next two games, the transfer window was still open and I was thinking of going into the manager and maybe go out on loan – but I’ve just learned the position.”
Yet Pellegrini has now revealed he doesn’t understand why Rice ever felt like he might need to leave on loan, and revealed that he spoke to the player around that time to tell him he’d be an important player this season.
“I don’t know why he thought that as he had no options to go on loan,” said Pellegrini, as quoted by Sky Sports.
“Maybe he was disappointed because he played the first game, which we lost, but I spoke with him the same day and told him he was going to be an important player this season.”
In hindsight it’s easy to see that Pellegrini’s confidence was well placed as Rice has been one of the club’s standout performers across his 34 outings.
The fact that the Hammers boss was able to be that confident in the enforcer’s ability this season, even when the player doubted himself, is impressive.
It’s especially worthy of bragging about for the manager as many would have likely written Rice off after his display against the Reds, as he did look dramatically out of his depth in that match.
However it’s clear that given how it’s all worked out, Pellegrini should feel smug about knowing so early on this season that Rice was good enough to play a key role this season.
