'I gave Declan Rice his full debut but I did not expect him to be this good’: Slaven Bilic gives insight into the career of the boy wonder who could have been binned-off at age 16 due to his 'weird' running style

  • Slaven Bilic has admitted that he 'did not expect Declan Rice to be so good' 
  • He has become one of the best players in the league but almost didn't turn pro 
  • Rice could now be on the cusp of a move away from West Ham this summer  

They still remember the debate at West Ham and Declan Rice still recalls the day his future was resolved. The payback this summer for taking the right decision in 2015 could be £100million.

More importantly, there may also be another West Ham skipper to add to the photos of Bobby Moore and Billy Bonds lifting trophies.

The latter part of that equation depends on West Ham overcoming Fiorentina in Prague in the Europa Conference League final.


Whatever happens, it will be Rice’s last game for the club that rescued him from Chelsea rejection at the age of 14 before he likely moves on to Arsenal, though Bayern Munich and Manchester United have also shown interest.

So now is the time to trot out those familiar stories about how he was always destined to be a West Ham great. Except they are just not true. 

England star Declan Rice could leave West Ham this summer, but before he makes his decision, he will play one more game for the club next week in the Europa Conference League final

England star Declan Rice could leave West Ham this summer, but before he makes his decision, he will play one more game for the club next week in the Europa Conference League final

Slaven Bilic, who gave Rice his debut for the club, says he didn't expect him to be this good

Slaven Bilic, who gave Rice his debut for the club, says he didn't expect him to be this good

The West Ham captain has excelled over the past few seasons and emerged into one of the best and highly-rated defensive midfielders in the country, attracting a plus £100m price tag

The West Ham captain has excelled over the past few seasons and emerged into one of the best and highly-rated defensive midfielders in the country, attracting a plus £100m price tag

Slaven Bilic, the man who gave him his West Ham debut, is characteristically blunt.

 ‘We thought he might one day turn out to be West Ham captain as a centre-back, a John Terry type, because he was very reliable and had that determination,’ said Bilic. 

‘But let’s not bull****. Did he look like he would go on to be one of the best midfielders in the Premier League? No, I can’t lie.’

It was not just Chelsea who doubted him, cutting him from their youth programme at 14. Even at 16 years old, he did not especially look the part of future pro. And some at West Ham were ready to let him go. Like Harry Kane, another potential £100m player this summer, he was an ‘ugly duckling’.

‘It’s a crazy story, Rice said recently. ‘They were going to release me. It was a 50-50 decision. Half the coaches wanted to keep me on. Half were saying: “We’re not too sure”. We played a game against Fulham, I played for the Under 18s that day at centre-half and Terry Westley told me after that he would give me my scholarship.’

Even then Rice was only offered a two-year scholarship. The better players had a three-year pro contract thrown in. Rice did not merit that but Westley, now technical advisor to Japan’s J-League, remembers the internal debate at the club over whether to keep Rice or not.

‘In the end I just said: “I’m Head of Academy at West Ham and I’m taking the decision to keep him”. I was convinced he was a late developer, that there was lots to come and he had an outstanding mentality. Those were reasons I made the case for him.

‘I pulled him to one side after that Fulham game and said: “Go home, tell your parents you’ve got a two-year scholarship”. 

The reaction was typical of him. There was no big-time about him just sheer delight. And he had earned that great feeling to be able to get into the car and tell his parents he was staying on.’

Rice could've gone elsewhere had it not been for Terry Westley, West Ham's ex-Academy boss

Rice could've gone elsewhere had it not been for Terry Westley, West Ham's ex-Academy boss

Rice was recently pictured at Chadwell heath with Terry Westly (first-left), Sir Trevor Brooking (second left) and Mark Noble (fourth left) ahead of a seismic summer for the West Ham star

Rice was recently pictured at Chadwell heath with Terry Westly (first-left), Sir Trevor Brooking (second left) and Mark Noble (fourth left) ahead of a seismic summer for the West Ham star

 

Rice’s life had never been the gilded path of a prodigy. Tony Carr, Westley’s predecessor at West Ham, remembers the day when he was tipped off about the 14-year-old midfielder rejected by Chelsea. 

‘Our head of scouting Dave Hunt told me Chelsea were letting two players go that we should have a look at. I didn’t know the names but when they turned up, I recognised them from academy games. What I liked about Declan was that he always looked you in the eye. If the coaches said something, he’d hold his gaze and show he understood.’

Rice may have seemed composed and confident. Inside though, he was just another insecure 14-year-old when the Chelsea rejection came. ‘I felt like that was it,’ he told Gary Neville on The Overlap. 

‘The embarrassment of it was a big one. How do you tell your friends that you’ve been released by Chelsea? There was shock, upset. Chelsea was all I knew. Where am I going to go? What am I going to do? But that night I trained with Fulham on the Wednesday and on Thursday I was at West Ham.’

Westley said: ‘To be fair to Chelsea, they had so many good players in that group. Rice’s immediate contemporaries were his closest friend Mason Mount, Reece James and Trevoh Chalobah. Marc Guehi, Conor Gallagher, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Tariq Lamptey were a year younger.

‘It was an age group in which they were blessed,’ says Westley, who writes for the Claret and Hugh website. ‘I can easily see that if they were going to take 10 scholars, they were all probably internationals. There might have been negatives [with Rice] rather than looking at two to three years’ time. The hardest thing in youth development is to look at what he might become rather than what he can’t do.’ 

Rice could now join an illustrious group of West Ham captains who have lifted trophies which includes names like Bobby Moore (back-row, holding trophy) and Billy Bonds

Rice could now join an illustrious group of West Ham captains who have lifted trophies which includes names like Bobby Moore (back-row, holding trophy) and Billy Bonds

Rice could have been dropped by the West Ham academy because of his 'weird' running style

Rice could have been dropped by the West Ham academy because of his 'weird' running style

One Chelsea source said last season: ‘The negatives that caused him to be let go — a slowness in his feet — are still there, it’s just the rest of his game has developed so much and is so outstanding that you don’t notice it now.’

Westley disagrees. ‘I don’t see the slowness in his feet,’ he says. ‘He manipulates the ball very quickly on the edge of the 18-yard box, under pressure and he can move it to a team-mate. Development is looking at a teenager and thinking: “He’s not going to be that in two years’ time”. And looking at his mentality, you could see a boy who is going to tick off the boxes.’ Rice’s assessment looking back at that time was that a massive growth spurt affected his coordination.

‘My body wasn’t all connected together and my running pattern was really weird and I couldn’t keep up with other kids,’ he says.

There is one factor anyone who has dealt with Rice agrees on: his mental focus. ‘Not just in football, but in society, if you have a young boy who is striving, who maybe turns up early at the building site and is the last to leave and will go the extra mile on a job, do you come across many like that?’ says Westley. ‘When you do find someone like, that they stand out.’

West Ham have individual development plans for players so, if their body strength is a weakness, they will be assigned time with the strength and conditioning coach to work on that; or if movement on the pitch is an issue, another coach will be assigned to work with the teenager individually. 

Westley said: ‘He took ownership of the plan. His attitude was: “I will work as hard as I can to make that happen”.’

‘He moved very quickly from full-time Under 16 scholar and was playing with the Under 21s at 17 and I needed to say to Karren [Brady], David Gold and David Sullivan: “Look, we need to put him on a pro contract quick”. 

Within a year, we had to call him into the office again and say: “Look we have to improve your pro contract”. He matured from 16 to 19 very quickly and was in the first team.’

Bilic soon had him in the first-team squad training. ‘What helped him was that he was a bit under the radar,’ said Bilic. ‘A couple of years before, when I’d come to West Ham, I couldn’t move around the place without hearing that Reece Oxford was going to be the next big thing. 

Reece made his debut at 16 and we beat Arsenal 2-0, you can imagine the hype. He had an entourage, he got injuries, maybe lost a bit of confidence and focus.

‘Decs was a different story. He was able to come in without the same expectations. I remember being in Germany on pre-season and walking round the hotel and seeing him with his mum and dad. They’d come over to see him, I had a chat and they didn’t seem the type to want a lot of fuss. Things like that don’t do any harm to a young player.’

Westly said: ‘The guys who make the top level early, at 15, have to maintain being the best. Kieron Dyer [who played for England at the 2006 World Cup] at Ipswich was only given a two-year scholarship late on. It was a case of: “Well, let’s take him on because he’s a local lad”. But he was never big and powerful.

‘Matthew Upson [who played for England in the 2010 World Cup] wasn’t taken by Norwich, where he’s from, or by Ipswich because, at 14, he couldn’t run. Four years later Arsene Wenger paid £2m for him because he was quickest left-sided defender. John Hartson was another one with outstanding mentality. They had to fight to show their abilities. Declan has that. He still drops me messages with: “What can I add to improve my game?”’

Many sides including Arsenal and Man United are eyeing up a move for the England midfielder

Many sides including Arsenal and Man United are eyeing up a move for the England midfielder

Rice has been pivotal in midfield and built up a solid relationship with Tomas Soucek (right)

Rice has been pivotal in midfield and built up a solid relationship with Tomas Soucek (right)

Rice registered a whopping 49 appearances while helping West Ham avoid the drop this term

Rice registered a whopping 49 appearances while helping West Ham avoid the drop this term 

It was the last day of the season in 2017 at Turf Moor where Rice came on in the 89th minute that saw him make his debut under Bilic. ‘The next pre-season we had injury problems with midfielders Cheikh Kouyate and Manuel Lanzini,’ said Bilic.

‘Decs played there, he wasn’t the quickest or a maestro on the ball but his positioning was clever, he anticipated where the ball would be and reacted sharply. And he was good at distribution.

‘What I liked was the way he reacted if he made a mistake, as he did in a game at Newcastle. He was angry with himself but he responded like an experienced player. “S*** happens but I’m ready to go again”.

‘Young players can have great ability, physique, technique but let’s not forget that what Decs has — character, game intelligence, determination — are also qualities. That’s what made great captains like Roy Keane and Bryan Robson.’

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