Anton Ferdinand shared that he thought West Ham were capable of finishing in the Premier League’s top-six this season.
The former Hammers defender claimed that when you consider the money they spent in the summer and the depth of their squad then they should be looking at achieving a top-six finish.
“Yeah it has to be in their sights (top-six finish) after the money they have spent this summer,” said Ferdinand on Sky Sports News (10:29am, Tuesday, September 17th).
“The squad has a good depth to it, a quality to it, so yeah we have to be looking to the top-six.”
Ferdinand was then asked for his thoughts on Declan Rice and rave about the midfield enforcer by describing him as a breath of fresh air.
“Yeah he has been a breath of fresh air, fantastic prospect who has got a lot more to come,” replied the former Hammers defender.
OPINION
Ferdinand may have kept his words brief on West Ham and Rice but he got his point across. The defender clearly still has his former club in his heart and believes they can have a good season this year. Ferdinand clearly also believes that there is more to come from Rice and given that the Hammers midfielder is still only 20-years-old then it’s hard not to agree with him. It’s easy to forget that Rice is still so young as he has already established himself as a key member of Manuel Pellegrini’s side. So far this season, the 20-year-old has played every minute of the Hammers’ league campaign and has impressively averaged a rating of 7.10 across his outings on WhoScored. Rice has won 60% of his tackles in his league outings, intercepted the ball 11 times, made five clearances and has kept the midfield ticking over by controlling the tempo through his passes as he has notably averaged 43.80 passes per game (Source: Premier League). With the Hammers hopefully aiming for a top-six finish, Rice will have to keep up his good form in order to help the club achieve that goal.
