Exclusive: Pundit believes West Ham star Declan Rice could be worth up to £100m | OneFootball

Speaking exclusively to Football FanCast, former Premier League forward Dean Windass believes West Ham’s Declan Rice could be worth up to £100m in this current market.

Rice was easily one of the best defensive midfielders in English football’s top flight last season. As per WhoScored, he averaged 1.8 interceptions per game, putting him in the top 10 for that category out of all the players who featured regularly during that campaign.

Is Rice in the £80-100m bracket?

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The 22-year-old is now being heavily linked with a move to West Ham’s London rivals Chelsea, with Athletic journalist Simon Johnson recently suggesting that it is a deal that could happen in this transfer window in an update on Twitter.

On how much he thinks Rice is worth, Windass told FFC in an exclusive interview:

“He’s got to be up there, 80, 90, 100m. I think for Declan Rice, if Arsenal, Tottenham or Chelsea come running, you can’t turn it down.”

Looking at Rice’s interception numbers again, in Chelsea’s squad, only N’Golo Kante averaged more with two per game. The former Blues academy player and the Frenchman, what a sturdy midfield partnership that could be.

There is a long way to go, though, before Thomas Tuchel can even think about deploying such a midfield duo. West Ham do not want to sell Rice and hold most if not all of the cards here, with the England international still having three years left to run on his contract.