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Rice dismisses Souness
England midfielder and West Ham captain Declan Rice has hit back at comments from Graeme Souness and deemed the pundit’s words as “harsh”.
Rice, 24, has been subject to transfer speculation in recent months with his future in East London unclear and the Hammers struggling to retain their place in the Premier League.
Many top clubs, including Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United have all been linked with the Three Lions ace and are likely to move for him in the summer.
Rice has expressed his desire to play in the Champions League but has faced fresh criticism from former Liverpool and Scotland skipper Souness who does not believe the Londoner possesses the quality to become a world-class player.
On the comments, Rice said: “It’s harsh, I think it’s harsh because Souness doesn’t watch West Ham every week.
“There are loads of West Ham fans, 60,000 go every week, and see what I do.
“Souness was a top midfielder, a top player and when someone like him speaks you have to sometimes listen and take on board where you can improve if that’s true.
“There has always been loads of talk around my name. But for me, now I’m here, it’s about these two fixtures for England and of course, when I get back to West Ham it’s about playing the best I can for that club to get us out of the relegation battle and win the [Europa] Conference League.”
Rice is expected to start England’s Euro 2024 qualifier against Italy tonight before Gareth Southgate’s side hosts Ukraine on Sunday at Wembley.
Porro fires back at Sherwood
Pedro Porro has lashed out at former Tottenham manager Tim Sherwood after his scathing criticism of the defender during the 4-1 loss at Leicester last month.
Porro signed for the North London outfit in January and was given his debut against the Foxes, but struggled to adapt to the physicality and pace of the Premier League.
Since then, the Spanish wing-back has gone on to make a good account of himself under Antonio Conte, grabbing a goal and an assist in five league appearances.
After being recalled to the national squad by Luis de la Fuente, the 23-year-old has finally had his say on Sherwood’s explosive review of his debut at the King Power Stadium.
He said: “It doesn’t annoy me, exactly. You know people will have their opinion, they’re going to say you played badly, that you’re no good or whatever.
“You read what’s said about a player who has been at the club two days — two days — and that hits you because you think: ‘I’ve just got here!’
“I’m not a machine that goes like this and that’s it, I know everyone, I’m integrated. I really hope he keeps saying bad things about me that will make me stronger.
“But it’s true that it made an impression because I had been at a big club for so little time and well, let me loose in a prison and I’ll end up owning the place. But it’s hard, it was only a week, I’d never played in England in my life.
“People passed it on, saying he had spoken badly about me. But he won’t be the first who then had to shut his mouth.”
Ferguson’s focus
Republic of Ireland striker Evan Ferguson is hoping he can replicate his excellent performance against Latvia when he faces France on Monday.
The 18-year-old Brighton forward opened his international account on Wednesday by netting in the 3-2 win at the Aviva Stadium making him the youngest man to score for the country since Robbie Keane.
But Ferguson has already dismissed the friendly win and insists that his sights are firmly set on the Euro 2024 qualifier against the World Cup finalists.
He said: “I don’t think there is much better feeling than scoring at home with family and friends watching, there is no other way to describe it.
“But now it’s just try and go on and think about the France game and see if I can get another one.
“It means something different playing internationals. Every game, there is more on the line, so it just feels a bit different playing for your country.”
