Nigel Reo-Coker revealed that he thought West Ham midfielder Declan Rice was ready for first-team football when Slaven Bilic was in charge.
The former Hammers midfielder shared that when he was working with some of the young players at the club, he noticed Declan Rice and was in awe of how good he was.
Reo-Coker shared that he was so impressed that he tipped Rice to be the next Tony Adams and personally told him that.
“Within the five minutes of that session, I stopped the session and asked the coach who’s that? He said Declan Rice the 23s captain, I said listen he should be with the first-team and this when Slaven Bili? was in charge, just from our generation of coming through you notice and you could notice his eyes light up, he was eager to learn, he was so polite,” said Reo-Coker on BBC Radio 5 Live (Tuesday March 19th, 19:18).
“He was so humble and just wanted to learn and you could see he had a love for the game and at the time, and I said to him you know who you remind me of? I said you could be the next Tony Adams as he just had that about him.
“That presence, that captain, that never-say-die and I knew if he was as immense as this as training, I was just hoping he’d have good senior players around him who’d help him to continue develop it and look now, he has done fantastically well.”
OPINION
Reo-Coker gushed about Rice with pride over the fact the 20-year-old was doing really well and was fulfilling the potential he noticed when he saw him play. The former Hammers midfielder clearly believes Rice is a talented player and wouldn’t hold back when talking about his first impressions of him.It’s no surprise that Reo-Coker speaks so highly of Rice, what is more of a shock is that he thought he was good enough to play under Bilic. While the Hammers midfield enforcer ended up having to wait longer that Reo-Coker thought for his first senior appearance when he was unleashed consistently in the first-team, he didn’t let the opportunity pass him by. This seems to be the story of Rice’s career. The 20-year-old took the chance to become first-choice option at centre-back last season when David Moyes was struggling for options then transformed to become the ideal holding midfielder for Manuel Pellegrini this season.