Dec’s your man Erik. He’s a modern-day’ Bryan Robson who’s got the lot. Without him United have the spine of a jellyfish STAN COLLYMORE
ERIK TEN HAG should go all out to build his new-look Manchester United team around Declan Rice.
The West Ham and England midfielder is a winner. He’s physically strong, mentally strong and he has a great attitude.
He can tackle, he can defend, he can get forward, he can score goals and he has a brilliant ability to sniff out moments in a game when he knows he is needed.
He’s a modern-day Bryan Robson, actually.
Captain Marvel was the catalyst for a mentality change at Old Trafford when he arrived from West Brom in 1984 – and Rice would really shake-up the mood for United. I’d go as far as to say the West Ham man could be as an important part of the club’s transition now as Robson was for them back then.
With Robson at their heart, United went from being a big club with a big stadium that everyone loved to play at, to being a big club with a big stadium who everyone feared.
Of course, Rice could go to Old Trafford for six or seven years and not win a bean, maybe just a couple of FA Cups and perhaps one Premier League title towards the end of his stay.
But even then he’d still go down as an Old Trafford legend if he went there instead of Chelsea and kickstarted the mentality change that is so clearly needed at United.
Ten Hag is going to be busy between now and August, and the spine of United’s team is what requires the most urgent attention. They need a goalkeeper, a central defender, Rice, and an out-and-out striker this summer – because, at the moment, they have the spine of a jellyfish.
I know there’ll be plenty of people thinking, ‘Why would Rice join United right now anyway?’
Guarantee
And you can guarantee David Moyes and others will have been saying, ‘Let’s win the Europa League this season, then you can stay put, we’ll build this team around you, and you can kick on from there with us’.
But even if the Hammers do triumph in Europe’s second-rank competition Rice should go to United if the opportunity is there because, simply, West Ham aren’t big enough.
If Rice wins the Europa League with West Ham then that’s as good as it is
EVER going to get for him at the London Stadium. That reminds me of when I was at Nottingham Forest and Liverpool came knocking.
Forest had finished third in our first season in the Premier League but we just didn’t have the money to be able to outspend United and Blackburn, who were battling for the title then.
So, as a player you look at it and want to go somewhere where you think that challenging those teams could be a serious reality.
West Ham United are not going to be bringing in the type of players who can get them into a position to be challenging for the Premier League.
Manchester United have had their issues in recent seasons, but at the very least you know they will always have the kind of financial resources that can make that spending happen. In
the here and now with West Ham, I’d like to see Rice doing more between the halfway line and Eintracht Frankfurt’s 18-yard box on Thursday than he did last week, when the Germans edged the first leg 2-1.
Because if Rice and his team-mates can go to Frankfurt with bravery, enthusiasm and self-belief they have every chance of overturning their onegoal deficit and reaching the Europa League Final.
They really do need to embrace this challenge, because opportunities like these might only come once or twice in a career if you play for a club like the Hammers.
If they try to play a chess match in Germany, sit back and allow their hosts to dictate the tempo, it will be Frankfurt rather than Rice and West Ham who will be cruising through to the final.
I see clubs in Leagues One and Two wanting it but I don’t have confidence in the Premier League or its clubs pushing when government and supporters are advocating for something, it is the tune our biggest clubs want to dance to.