Declan Rice: West Ham will lose star man after ‘£100m+’ bid news – Agbonlahor
Gabby Agbonlahor has claimed Declan Rice will want to quit West Ham this summer after he was forced to keep them in the FA Cup at the weekend.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, the ex-Aston Villa and England forward also claimed West Ham have missed a golden opportunity to break into the top-four after failing to invest in the playing squad in January.
Rice had to come off the bench to score a last-minute equaliser against National League North side Kidderminster Harriers on Saturday (5 February).
They need a late extra-time goal from Jarrod Bowen to progress into the fifth round.
As quoted by football.london on Monday (7 February), David Moyes insisted Rice is now worth more than £100million.
“First of all, people don’t understand when you’re playing away to lower opposition in the FA Cup, it’s always tough, Agbonlahor told Football Insider‘s Connor Whitley.
“The pitches are different, it’s tighter. The team you’re playing against is at 100 per cent. It’s never easy.
“It definitely showed that West Ham are a million miles off it. They are a million miles off having the ambition that Declan Rice will want to stay for.
“They had to bring him on to rescue them. It shouldn’t be like that.
“They won’t be playing European football next season and Declan Rice will leave.
“In two years time, they will look back and think ‘If only we’d invested a bit more’.
“It was the same as my Aston Villa side. We finished sixth three seasons in a row, the chairman stopped investing and we fell down the league. West Ham will be exactly like that.
“I just don’t understand, with such a tight race for top-four, why did they not invest? It just baffles me.
“In two years time, they’ll look back and think ‘We messed up a good chance of getting into the top-four and now we’re a mid-table team’.”
In other news, West Ham have set their sights on signing a Rangers star after a 2020 bid was rejected.