Declan is a braver man than most
Declan Rice is at risk of creating a war of words with fiery pundit Roy Keane after he appeared to fire back at comments made by the former Republic of Ireland international.
After West Ham's FA Cup exit to Manchester United last week,
Keane said he had been left underwhelmed when watching Rice and felt that he had more to offer.
Speaking on ITV, he said: "I don't think he's been that good. I don't think he's been great this season.
"He's not really kicked on, you know, for all the talk about him, a lot of good PR coming out of West Ham, how much he's worth.
"I think he needs to do a lot more. He doesn't get enough goals, doesn't get enough assists.
"He needs to do a lot more. And listen, I've been a fan of him. He turns up every week, he's always fit, but I just want a bit more from him."
https://twitter.com/itvfootball/status/1631012835516899328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1631012835516899328%7Ctwgr%5E1f51e312d5acf21a91e86f656373430a0bfd6748%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fextra.ie%2F2023%2F03%2F06%2Fsport%2Fdeclan-rice-criticism-roy-keane-west-ham
However Rice seemed to take offence to those comments and came back fighting after West Ham's heavy 4-0 defeat away at Brighton & Hove Albion at the weekend.
"I don't really listen to the opinions of other people, because if they were experts they would be playing on the pitch, but they're not, so," the Hammers skipper said.
"So I just keep my head down, so do all the lads. We listen to ourselves, we listen to the people around us, we stick together as a group and we move onto the next one.
"Like I said, we know it wasn't good enough."
https://twitter.com/AntonioMango4/status/1632141362106626051?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1632141362106626051%7Ctwgr%5E1f51e312d5acf21a91e86f656373430a0bfd6748%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fextra.ie%2F2023%2F03%2F06%2Fsport%2Fdeclan-rice-criticism-roy-keane-west-ham
Whether Rice was directly addressing Keane or not is another question but, if the former Ireland youth international did, he may have picked the wrong guy to fight that battle with.
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