West Ham coach Stuart Pearce was full of praise for club captain Mark Noble and the influence he has on the squad and in particular Declan Rice. Pearce, no stranger to leadership himself throughout his career, described Noble as a ‘fantastic’ captain and role model. The Hammers coach captained England on ten occasions and a spent decade as skipper of Nottingham Forest and was full of praise for the role Noble still plays at West Ham.
Stuart Pearce said: “Mark is a fantastic captain whether he actually plays or not, he still has a major influence at West Ham and he is a big influence on Declan as well. If you need a role model to look up to, to show you how to captain a football club I think Mark is a fantastic role model for Declan.”
Despite his tender years, Rice has worn the West Ham armband for the majority of the Premier League campaign with Noble getting used to a role as a squad player rather than a regular starter, and Pearce is thrilled with how Rice has taken to his task.
Stuart Pearce said: “Dec has been brilliant, his form for us has been fantastic he is a very young man who has been thrust into leadership and I think he is thriving in that at West Ham I really do. I think he will grow into it the more he captains teams and the more games he plays, he is a real integral player for West Ham at this moment in time.”
Rice has not captained his country yet but is a clear leader on the field for England with his constant communication and direction to those around him. His communication even stretched to geeing up the already raucous Wembley crowd when England took on Germany in the last-16 of Euro 2020. Rice was seen urging the supporters to turn up the volume as the Three Lions looked to close out a 2-0 win, with the crowd immediately responding to the central midfielder. After the match, Rice was asked what had brought the beaming smile to his face ahead of the game, with the 22-year-old replying it was seeing Noble and his son in the crowd.
Declan Rice said: “My fellow skipper Mark Noble was up there with James Corden. James is a big West ham fan so he was in the box with Nobes and I could see Nobes and his kid Lenny, so I was buzzing to see them. It really made me happy. Today was probably the most composed I have been more than the group stage games and today was the bigger game. I just knew it was a game of football where we had to go out there and if we imposed ourselves we could really show what we could do, and we could come out on top.”
