Gary Neville has admitted that he was “completely wrong” about West Ham United star Declan Rice and that he judged the midfielder “too early”.
Over the past couple of years, Rice has established himself as one of the best midfielders in the Premier League.
He has been a key performer for West Ham and he was vital for England as they reached the final of last year’s European Championships.
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Rice is reportedly valued at £100m by the Hammers and he is being targeted by Man Utd ahead of the summer transfer window.
Neville has now acknowledged that he judged Rice wrong and that he is a “fantastic talent”:
“Thought of the Week: ‘Don’t go too early’,” Neville said (via LinkedIn).
“This is something that I often say to myself in punditry. You form a view on something either in haste or we always tell ourselves sayings like ‘trust your first instincts’, ‘I knew I didn’t like them after five minutes’.
“However I interviewed Declan Rice this week for the overlap and I judged him as a young player at West Ham.
“I have to say I got it completely wrong. What an outstanding young person. Authoritative, confident, humble and quite simply the most impressive young footballer I’ve interviewed in 11 years.
“He’s also a fantastic talent and I went too early!”
Earlier this month, Paul Parker encouraged Man Utd to “spend a fortune” to sign Rice:
“If you wanted to spend a fortune on a midfield player, go and get Declan Rice.
“Declan is the best central midfielder in the country.
“If City wants to pay £100million for Jack Grealish, if someone wants you to pay £160million [for Declan Rice], then you gotta pay it because Jack Grealish wasn’t worth £100million. They’ve set a mark now.
“Declan Rice is the closest player that Manchester United could ever get, who you would say is — ‘no he’s Bryan Robson, no he’s Roy Keane, no he’s Paul Ince.’ This is because he wants to do everything.
“He’s one of those players who wants to say ‘please don’t label me.’ Don’t label me as a defensive midfield player. Don’t label me as an attacking midfielder as I want to be all over the park trying to control everything.”
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