DECLAN RICE has given the biggest hint yet he will stay at West Ham next season.
The Hammers midfielder has been linked with mega-money moves away to the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City this summer.
Rice, 23, has turned down three improved contract offers that would make him the highest paid player in the club’s history on around £200k-a-week.
He has been open about wanting to play the highest level, and that includes the Champions League after West Ham lost in the Europa League semi-finals to Frankfurt.
Yet Rice’s current deal has two years left with the club having the option of extending that by a further year – while boss David Moyes has valued Rice at “north of £150m”.
And speaking at the club’s end-of-season awards last night, Rice picked up the Hammer of the Year before being asked if they will see him for the start of the 2022/23 campaign.
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Rice smiled and replied: “Yeah of course.”
After the crowd started chanting his name, he added: “There has been so much speculation but you can see every time I put on a shirt what this club means to me.
“Every time I step onto that pitch, every time I leave the pitch, I will always walk off having given 100 per cent and I will always give everything for this club and the manager and my teammates.”
West Ham still have a chance of playing in the Europa League next season, with a game in hand on sixth-placed Manchester United and a gap of just three points as well as a superior goal difference.
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And having reached their first major European semi-final for the first time in 46 years, Rice continued: “We've proved that we can play in big European games.
“Our fans and our stadium have shown we can handle those big European nights, and that's what we want more of.
“I'm proud of the lads because we're not the biggest of squads, so to go week in, week out again and again and again, training and playing Thursdays and Sundays.
“Away from home and away from families, it has been tough, but in the end we've had a great year and we're ready to go again.”
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