West Ham skipper Mark Noble is approaching the twilight of what has been a great career in the Hammers shirt, and at 30, it doesn’t appear he has much years left in his legs before he hangs the boot.
Upon his retirement, could one of the youth team stars step into his shoes?
The under-21’s continued their brilliance on Tuesday evening, strolling to a 3-1 victory over League One side Bristol Rovers in the Checkatrade Trophy.
While the impressive Toni Martinez grabbed the headlines again after notching his tenth and eleventh goal of the season, academy director Terry Westley singled out Declan Rice for praise due to his leadership quality.
He told the club’s official website post-match: “The manner in which we won is extremely satisfying.
“After a disastrous start, it just shows the character of this group led by a tremendous captain in Declan Rice and beside him Josh Pask, as centre-halves they really got to grips with what Bristol Rovers threw at us.
“It was hard at times, having to keep heading balls and clearing it out but when we got it down, we passed them off the pitch. 3-1 could have easily been more than that.”
Rice has often skippered the youth teams whenever he’s not with the senior side, and without a doubt has everything it takes to succeed Noble as captain.
The 18-year-old centre-back cum defensive midfielder has played 5 EPL games for West Ham this term, and could be afforded another appearance against Liverpool by weekend with boss Slaven Bilic sweating over a crocked defence.
