Rio Ferdinand has claimed fans would respect Declan Rice's decision to leave West Ham United in search of trophies.
Rice spoke during the 2022 World Cup held last December in Qatar about the possibility of playing in the UEFA Champions League amid interest from a number of Premier League clubs including London rivals Arsenal and Chelsea as well as Manchester United, who allegedly bid £100millon for the midfielder last summer.
Ferdinand spent five years with the Hammers and made over 100 appearances before leaving for Leeds United and ended up at Man United, where he won multiple Premier League titles and a UEFA Champions League.
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Ferdinand has claimed that West Ham fans respected his decision back in 2000 to leave the club and should Rice make the same step in his career, the ex-England international believes the current captain will get the same treatment.
"You could say West Ham, stay here and have a career like Mark Noble, but the fans will hate me for saying it - I was a player in his shoes once here at West Ham, quite identical in many ways, and I wanted to win things," Ferdinand told BT Sport before the 1-1 draw against Chelsea.
"I wanted to do that at West Ham and it wasn’t possible, I wanted to win things and the fans respected that. He’s got enough in the tank here, done enough in his time here, for the fans to respect any decision that he does make."
Rice is not the finished article according to Ferdinand, who claimed that the 24-year-old would improve under a 'good coach' should he swap the London Stadium for a new club in the summer.
The pundit added that Rice needs to add more to his game, especially when in control of the ball and adding his name to the scoresheet will only improve his game.
"I think with Rice, he’s still got levels to go in his game. He’s still a young player and I think he does a job very, very well here at West Ham, but I think whether it’s here or elsewhere, there are other parts to his game where he’s still looking to develop himself, but will be extracted by a good coach as well.
"I don’t think he needs to improve, he just needs to add to it. We saw in the Europa League last season his ability to drive and change the dynamic of a game, and can do that with passing as well. The more he improves that ability to get forwards and I think he adds goals to his game as well, and if he can do that you don’t know what he can be."
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