Bournemouth's defender search leads them to West Ham

Declan Rice in his new West Ham kit - will he get to wear it next season?

The Sun has reported that West Ham United's Declan Rice may be potentially a target for the Cherries and Crystal Palace, after being told he will not be an automatic starter for Manuel Pelligrini's Hammers. New signing Issa Diop is expected to take his place. A glimpse of what the Cherries could be buying was shown on the Sun's cheeky pages with a clip of Man City's 100th goal of the season in the last campaign which was a Declan Rice own goal. It certainly wasn't Rice's highlight of the season, but if he can't get in West Ham's side does that make him a good pick for Bournemouth?

The 19-year-old is an international player for the Republic of Ireland, although he is yet to win a competitive cap which does still make him eligible to play for England. Still, he had Irish grandparents and was reported in the Daily Mail recently as saying it is 'a load of ****' that he would consider changing allegiance to England.

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Rice is reported as rejecting an £8000 a week deal to stay at the Hammers. He played 31 times for the London club in 2017/18. West Ham paid for more for Fulham's Ryan Federicks and it has meant that Rice is looking very likely to make a move this summer having only had one season in the Premier League. The defender would perhaps be more impressed if the Sun had shown his man of the match winning performance against Tottenham at Wembley last season. Just to show Bournemouth fans appreciate good defending, here is the clip that Declan posted himself on Twitter.

That performance at Wembley, Dec 👏 #ImForever pic.twitter.com/VRbeh3Qtep

— West Ham United (@WestHamUtd) June 6, 2018

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