Darren Bent has hailed West Ham midfielder Declan Rice, claiming that the youngster is “unbelievable”.
In particular, the Sky Sports pundit picked out the 20-year-old’s decision to swap international allegiances from the Republic of Ireland to England as a key factor in his development.
Speaking to Football Insider, he said: “He’s a very good player.
“What helped him was the whole England-Ireland thing, it really helped him.
“He’s got unbelievable talent, you can’t deny that, but at the same time, I do think he got elevated a bit. Declan Rice has done very good, he’s been a key reason as to why West Ham are doing as well as they are so I think he’s done well.”
OPINION
Rice hasn’t had the best week, truth be told, and has come in for a fair amount of stick from England supporters for his role in the Three Lions’ 2-1 defeat to the Czech Republic on Friday evening, as per Forever West Ham, but that shouldn’t distract from the fact that he is a supremely talented player. He may not always be at the very top of his game, but he is young and still learning, and the good vastly outweighs the bad at the moment. So far this season, he has averaged a pass completion rate of 89.5% in the Premier League, as well as 3.8 tackles and 2.3 interceptions per game, and a Whoscored rating of 7.05. Most exciting of all, however, is the fact that he will only keep on getting better and better. West Ham have a special talent on their hands here.
