Rice Will Be England Captain Someday – Terry Butcher

Declan Rice’s £105 million switch to Arsenal helped him improve as a footballer, ex-England captain Terry Butcher has said. He recently had his say while speaking to the press, and fans have been reacting.

Stressing that Rice can be expected to fill the Three Lions’ armband at some point, Terry noted that Declan’s mentality has clearly improved since he stepped up from West Ham.

Butcher added that the Arsenal CM is a great example of a leader whenever he drives through the opponent’s midfield.

His words, “I found when I moved from Ipswich to Rangers in ‘86, the club I moved to had won more things than the club that I came from.

Obviously with Rangers, they had the crowds and the history and moving from West Ham to Arsenal, you can see that Arsenal have won a lot of things as well. You feel like you step up another two or three levels because it’s so much bigger, so much different.

I know West Ham are having a poor time at the moment, a hard time at the moment, but Arsenal have always been there, particularly with Arsene Wenger winning trophies and doing very well in Europe.

For me going to Rangers, it was like, ‘well, I’ve got to really raise my game now’. It does make you play better. It does make you raise the game because everybody wants to beat you even more so than before.

You play for West Ham and it’s, ‘well, we can beat West Ham’. And then you play for Arsenal and you’re like, ‘well, they can smash us five or six’. You mentally have to step up another level too.

And that goes hand in hand, the mental side and the physical side, but the mental side, especially where you have much more responsibility. Like being captain of England, that responsibility just triples or at least five times more than what it was before at club level.

I think Declan is one that, he’s come onto the global stage now. He plays in a great position.

He gets forward and he can get back. He can play in different roles. He’s a great example of a leader driving through that midfield.

And particularly when you’ve got Harry Kane up front as well, we’ve got a couple of really good leaders there that if they were to say things and get players going, then they would listen.”

On if the Three Lions can win the World Cup, “Everybody’s pointed fingers at England saying, ‘when it comes to the knockout stages, we don’t beat teams that are in the top 10 and we don’t do the necessary thing’.

If you’re going to win the World Cup, you’ve got to beat the best teams. I think we’re better equipped now to do that. I think the Ghana game gave Thomas Tuchel a big indication of what his team is and what his best team is.

There’s lots of players that are sometimes just waiting, like [Bukayo] Saka waiting to come on and start the games. Saka came on and had a great shot, but it was a great save by the Ghanaian keeper. So he’s one that can unlock the door, but I’d like to see him start. I think he’s not far away from starting.”

WOW.