Kurt Zouma has delivered his take on Declan Rice after the midfielder left West Ham United to join Arsenal in the summer.
West Ham sold Declan Rice to Arsenal for around £105 million in July, and Kurt Zouma has spoken to the press about the 24-year-old’s exit.
The England international incurred the wrath of the Hammers fans after seemingly issuing a come and get me plea to the world’s biggest clubs during the World Cup out in Qatar over the winter.
David Moyes was then forced to sell him just six months later. Rice has since moved to calm tensions with the West Ham fans by talking us up ahead of a potential return to the London Stadium with Arsenal at the end of this month.
How do the Hammers players feel about their former captain’s exit though?
Kurt Zouma has just come out with quite simply the biggest Declan Rice putdown imaginable
The Frenchman actually praised Rice’s quality when speaking to reporters.
However, the biggest takeaway from the 28-year-old’s comments was his emphatic admission that Dec’s exit has not affected West Ham one little bit, as quoted by the BBC:
“We lost a top player, an important player, in Declan. But I think the replacements that we made have been very clever. That didn’t affect us, to be fair, we knew he was going to go. He’s played some unbelievable games here, he’ll always be remembered here, but he’s an opponent now. The players that came in have bought into the project at West Ham, they’ve bought into the tactics, they’ve settled quickly as well. So we are pleased to have those guys and they’ve helped us make a really strong start to the season.”
That’s the biggest putdown of Rice I have heard yet. Without being brazen about it, Zouma clearly thinks the Hammers are now a better team without Rice.
I have to say, I agree with the former Chelsea man.
Listen, Rice is obviously a world-class player, but he definitely slowed us down in transition last season. We seem like a more unified outfit since he left and look a lot more dangerous on the counter attack.
Moyes deserves huge credit for improving us a team after Dec left to join the Gunners. Zouma obviously thinks we’re a more dangerous outfit now, and I’m sure that most Hammers fans wholeheartedly agree with him.
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