Timing is everything.
And the timing of Declan Rice’s interview makes it a completely different scenario. Normally Rice would be talking while on England duty, at a World Cup, and it would be at the end of the season to spark a summer bidding war. As we like to say.
Rice says his piece, gave an honest to a straightforward question and we have a few weeks where the story gets ramped up but he joins Chelsea, Manchester City or whoever a few weeks later. But this time, Rice has said it mid-season during the winter World Cup and has to go back to his club and play out the rest of the season.
Now, let’s be absolutely clear here: every West Ham fan expects him to go anyway and most probably wish him well because they think he’s a great bloke, has given everything for the club but now the time has come to move on.
Here’s what he said when asked about his future. “One hundred per cent I want to play in the Champions League,” he said. “For the last two or three years I’ve been saying that.
“I’ve been playing consistently well for my club and I feel like I really want to keep pushing. I see my friends here who are playing Champions League and for 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.”
All of that is surely fair enough. It’s hardly Paul Ince putting on a Manchester United shirt while still at West Ham. But the timing is not ideal.
However, it’s such a fair question because Rice has played brilliantly for England, he has shown once again he belongs on the biggest stage and it’s refreshing to have real honesty.
It’s just another example of why the timing of this World Cup is not what we’re used to, we find it a little unusual and rather difficult to cope with.
World Cup chaos
I was lucky enough to be at Spain v Japan on Thursday night.
What incredible drama as Group E went through so many twists and turns. So much so that at one point during the night, all four teams occupied the top two places at different stages. For three minutes, mighty Spain were going out. In the end, Germany went home.
Have you seen a more unhappy winner of a Man of the Match award than Kai Havertz? He didn’t want to know. Quite rightly.
But I was so happy for Japan. What a country, what enthusiasm and support from the fans. If you go to a World Cup game with Japanese fans, you’re in for a great time.
The lovely and ever helpful volunteers have made up a new song outside grounds: “Metro - this way…” The fans loved it so much they were still singing it on the trains on the way home.
This is an era when less fancied nations upset the big boys. The gap is closing. Also, people are losing perspective over the ball crossing the line. It’s what happens every single week in the Premier League and no-one says a word. When a player takes a corner, they put the ball on the other side of the white line but it overhangs the quadrant.
They want a clear, clean strike of the ball with it not sitting on white paint and they get marginal gains of it being a little further forward. It’s perfectly legal as long as the circumference of the ball hangs over the white line.
And think logically. If the ball is midair then goal line technology would show it’s not completely over the goal line. It would be one of those John Stones vs Liverpool moments. Millimetres.
But it was still in play and allowed Japan to win. They ended up beating Spain, knocking Germany out and topping the Group.
