Declan Rice has been full of praise for Jarrod Bowen, explaining just how important he is to West Ham.
No matter how you feel about Declan Rice and his move to Arsenal, there can be no denying the fact that he has been full of class when it comes to speaking about West Ham. Despite playing for a London rival, he has openly admitted how hard it was to move on and how he still has so much love for the Hammers. He's even gone the extra mile by urging players to move to the London Stadium which is something he obviously doesn't have to do.
In a recent interview while away with the England squad, Rice has once again showed his class, this time by praising Jarrod Bowen for just how vital he was/is to West Ham. "I'm not just saying it because he's here," Rice began, sitting alongside Bowen, "we relied on him [at West Ham]."
"He's the exact same as me - he runs so much. We relied on him so much to get up the pitch and his work rate under Moysey was just like 'back and forth, back and forth'."
"Obviously now, he's a club legend for that goal" he laughed.
The Hammers' former captain went on to explain why Bowen's defensive work actually puts him a level above other wingers. "I think that in any position you have to work hard. There's a lot of wingers who are luxury wingers, who don't actually do the work coming back because they're so good going forward, but with him he's got both sides of the game. You've seen that in the two games he's come on in, he's been top."
A lot of fans have been surprised about the winger's lack of minutes over the past few games for England. As Rice said, he was great when he came off the bench in the opening games of the Euros and it would be a real shame if he doesn't get another opportunity to shine, this time in the knockouts stage.
Although they may no longer be teammates at club level, Rice and Bowen were undoubtedly the two most important players in creating history at West Ham by winning the Europa Conference League. Just over a year later, they'll be hoping to win a European trophy for their country.
It's sad that Rice felt like he had to move on, but at least we've still got Bowen - and thankfully it doesn't look like he will be going anywhere anytime soon.