West Ham United will demand between £80-£90million for midfielder Declan Rice next summer, according to Claret & Hugh.
The reliable Hammers news source states around £70million was the price for the England international, but that it will rise once again next year.
Another season of quality production from the 20-year-old, combined with however many England caps he wins between now and then, will likely see the Irons demand a fat wad of cash for their star man.
OPINION
It’s only natural that Rice’s price tag is going to continue to go up year on year. That’s what happens when you are as young as he is. He’s going to improve season on season and therefore West Ham are going to be asking for more and more cash to reflect that improvement. The big question is whether any team would be willing to pay that amount of money? Basically it’s a similar enough figure to what Barcelona paid Borussia Dortmund for attacker Ousmane Dembele in 2017. Is Rice a better prospect than Dembele was in his Dortmund days? It’s difficult to say, because they are obviously such different players. However, the fact that Rice is English means that teams are going to have to pay a premium, that’s just standard practice these days. The thing is, whoever buys Rice is getting a player who is already very good, but who is going to get better and better over the next decade. With that said, this isn’t really an unreasonable amount of money for West Ham to want.
