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9th April 2018
12:17pm BST

"This kid is the next John Terry. At 19 he plays with maturity, is unbelievably brave and comfortable on the ball."Terry would make most Premier League XIs of the past 20 years so the comparison for the 19-year-old defender is huge. https://twitter.com/IronsNation/status/980882174705577986 Considering that Rice also proved adept in midfield on his senior Republic of Ireland debut - claiming the man-of-the-match accolade - he would appear to have a bright future in the game, for club and country. The Londoner could well have ended up on the opposite side of the Stamford Bridge pitch, on Sunday. He started off with the Chelsea youth team but was let go five years ago, at the age of 14. West Ham swooped in and the teenager rewarded them for making the call. Following the 1-1 draw, Rice took to Twitter to celebrate his team's performance, and that of Hart. He couldn't but mention his history with Chelsea too. Getting released at such a young age could have proved very damaging but Rice took to the new challenge and excelled. https://twitter.com/_DeclanRice/status/983056111099138048 That point took the Hammers six points from the relegation zone.
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