“It Could Have Been More” – Moyes Claims West Ham Should Have Got Another £50M From Summer Sale

West Ham manager David Moyes believes the club could have raised £150m from the sale of Declan Rice to Arsenal last year.

The Hammers eventually agreed a price which saw the Gunners pay £100m upfront (and another £5m in add-ons) but Moyes says the midfielder’s performances this season demonstrate why he could have fetched an even higher fee:

“I always said, and I think everyone laughed, that Dec should have been £150million. Other players have been sold for close to that price and I don’t think they’ve touched Declan’s level of performance.”



“The other thing is Declan is English, an England international, and he’s 25 now so he’s still got another six or seven years of his best years still to come.”

“So I think in time maybe we’ll look back and think it could have been more. But let’s be fair, I think most people – including the media, everybody – would have said it was a really good price for Declan at the time.”

Rice has been in outstanding form for Arsenal

The former West Ham captain scored his sixth goal of the season during the Gunners’ 2-1 win over Brentford at the weekend, taking his number of goal contributions to 13 in all competitions.

Nobody needed to tell Irons supporters that Rice was a top player but his displays for Mikel Arteta’s side have given him even greater recognition.

West Ham have used the money from his sale wisely

While fans were understandably disappointed about Rice’s exit, the club have at least put the proceeds to good use. The likes of Mohammed Kudus, Edson Alvarez, James Ward-Prowse and Konstantinos Mavropanos were signed in the summer.

All have proven to be good additions to the squad to a greater or lesser extent. Some supporters would, of course, still prefer to have Rice at the London Stadium but the club has now moved on.

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David Tully

David Tully

David has worked as a football reporter for the last fifteen years. Having started as an intern at Snack Media, he then went on to become a freelancer, working on various different sites. At the start of 2023, he took up his current role as content writer for National World's Football News Network.