David Moyes expects Declan Rice to be “welcomed with open arms” when he returns to West Ham with Arsenal on Wednesday.
England midfielder Rice will face his old club for the first time since joining the Gunners for £105million in the summer when the teams meet in the Carabao Cup.
The 24-year-old made 245 appearances for West Ham and captained them to victory in the Europa Conference League, the club’s first silverware in 43 years.
The Hammers fans are not exactly renowned for giving former players a warm welcome upon their return with another club, but boss Moyes believes Rice will get the recognition he deserves when he runs out at the London Stadium.
“You’ve got to remember this is the man who lifted this club’s first European trophy in more than 50 years,” said Moyes.
“He should be welcomed back with open arms. We’re all looking forward to seeing him again.
“He was a brilliant member of the team. He led the team brilliantly well. He conducted himself impeccably as a West Ham captain and as a player.
Full focus on tomorrow 😤 pic.twitter.com/5ulGluMgO0
— West Ham United (@WestHam) October 31, 2023
“The most important thing was that he gave 100 per cent in every game, even though we sort of knew he probably wasn’t going to stay at West Ham. So all credit to him. He conducted himself brilliantly well and for that alone he deserves to be cheered.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing Dec again. I’ve not seen him since he left. I don’t know if I want him to play, but I hope he’s there.”
Moyes is likely to include Lucas Paqueta and Edson Alvarez against Arsenal as both are suspended for Saturday’s Premier League trip to Brentford after collecting five bookings.
Former Arsenal players Lukasz Fabianski and Konstantinos Mavropanos will also be involved along with Emerson Palmieri, who is back from a ban.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here