West Ham United have one standout player according to Arsenal ace Declan Rice - someone who's been instrumental to our recent success.

Declan Rice left West Ham to join Arsenal in the summer of 2023, for a fee believed to be worth PS105 million.

The 25-year-old has proven to be a huge success with the Gunners, and it would be silly to suggest that we haven't missed him at the London Stadium.

That said, we still have a fantastic core group of players at West Ham, and the future looks very bright indeed under Julen Lopetegui.

The foundations for Lopetegui's upcoming spending spree were laid when Rice left the Hammers to join the Gunners for the PS105 million fee.

In spite of that huge outlay, the likes of Stuart Pearce have suggested that Arsenal got a bargain by signing Dec.

West Ham have secured a few bargains throughout the years as well. And one of them is far and away our best player now according to the Arsenal man...

Declan Rice makes it clear who West Ham United's best player is Lopetegui has a whole host of truly elite talents at his disposal at the London Stadium.

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Mohammed Kudus, Jarrod Bowen and Lucas Paqueta all have worldwide appeal, while the likes of Edson Alvarez and Emerson Palmieri are established stars as well.

The Spaniard will undoubtedly be looking to sign at least four or five more top-class stars, as he tries to get West Ham back inside the top seven this season.

However, who really is the best player we currently have at West Ham?

Former Hammer Rice made it very clear who he thinks is the standout star at the London Stadium, when speaking during a Lions' Den podcast episode whilst away on international duty with England.

Rice said, "A lot of that (running) comes from my West Ham days. We relied on him (Bowen). I am not saying now because he is here, but we relied on him so much to get up the pitch. His work-rate under Moyesy was just like back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Without him... Obviously now, he is a club legend. There are a lot of wingers who are luxury wingers, who don't actually do the work back because they are so good going forward, but with him, he has got such, both sides of the game."

Dec has made it fairly obvious that Bowen was the most important cog in Moyes's machine that won us our first major trophy in 43 years.

The 27-year-old has proven to be a sensational signing for the Hammers since joining us from Hull City in January 2020 for around PS20 million.

Bowen has gone on to bag 60 goals and 39 assists in 202 games for the East London outfit over the past four-and-a-half years.

And I expect there will be plenty more to come from Jarrod, with his contract at the London Stadium not set to expire until the summer of 2030.

Declan Rice has left everyone in no doubt that Jarrod Bowen is the best player at West Ham, and I think he's bang on the money.

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