Mark Noble believes West Ham have no chance of keeping hold of Declan Rice if a top side stumps up the money.
The 35-year-old, who is now sporting director at the club where he spent 18 years as a first-team player, admitted the Hammers 'ain't got a chance' in keeping hold of their talisman is an unusually blunt verdict from someone within a club's hierarchy. Rice has long been linked with a move away from East London, with Chelsea huge admirers of the energetic midfielder.
Recent weeks have seen Liverpool join an ever-lengthening list of admirers following another stellar set of displays for England as they reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup. Reds manager Jurgen Klopp is thought to be prioritising midfield reinforcements, with focus on rebalancing the age profile in that area that sees just two players - Naby Keita and Arthur Melo - considered in their prime age range.
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Whether Liverpool will action their interest remains to be seen, especially given the expectancy that they will prioritise Jude Bellingham come summer, but Noble admits the Hammers will be fighting a losing battle in trying to compete financially with those at the top.
"Whether you think things will get dicey at West Ham – and I don’t believe they will – we just can’t cope financially with the top teams," Noble told the Guardian. "We can try our hardest to recruit the best players that the top five or six don’t buy – and we might get lucky with a few that slip through the net – but you can’t compete with these teams.
"They’re financially too powerful. If a top club wants Declan Rice they’re just going to pay for him, full stop. You’ve seen it with Jack Grealish, with the best players. If the top boys want them, we ain’t got a chance."
It was during England's campaign in Qatar that Rice himself dropped the biggest hint yet that he would look to leave West Ham, the 23-year-old detailing his ambition to play in the Champions League and win major trophies.
"100% I want to be playing in the Champions League,” Rice told the media at the start of the month. “For the last two or three years I've been saying that. I've been playing consistently well for the club and I want to really keep pushing.
"I see my friends here winning the Champions League and other big trophies, you only get one career and at the end you want to look back at what you've won and the biggest games you've played in. I’m really ambitious and I want to do that."
Rice is contracted at West Ham until 2024, leaving next summer as the only available window in which the Hammers could sell their midfielder before value starts to diminish - should he refuse a new deal.
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