Scarles Has The Shirt Off Rice’s Back and Mystic Moyes Knew it All Along. In terms of West Ham feel-good stories, The NY Times article on Ollie Scarles, David Moyes, and Declan Rice is well worth a read.
Hammers correspondent Roshane Thomas knows his stuff, and his report on what Rice did after West Ham’s 1-0 win against Arsenal shows what a classy operator Declan is.
Rice is understood to have given Scarles his signed shirt following the game, which was a lovely touch. The former West Ham captain had a bit of a shocker and was substituted early by manager Mikel Arteta in a defeat that probably cost the Gunners the title.
Therefore, it was pretty decent of Dec to think of the latest player off the Academy of Football production line, considering he was having a very bad day. Bravo.
However, it is the accompanying report about how highly former gaffer David Moyes rated Scarles that has really caught my attention. Once again, The Athletic reports that Moyesie was asked whether West Ham had any good players coming through during a behind-closed-doors friendly against Stevenage last season, and he predicted Ollie Scarles would progress into a Premier League footballer.
Mystic Moyes, of course, was the manager who gave Scarles his Irons debut as a 16-year-old in the Europa League. So, the Everton boss probably has more reason than most to lay claim to Ollie’s progression.
Personally, I’m having none of it. Scarles hardly featured under Moyes once he’d made his first-team debut, and while the former boss can certainly claim that he was integrating George Earthy into the first team, Scarles had slipped off his radar.
I doubt very much whether the youngster would have been playing under Moyes this season if he’d remained in charge. I don’t believe for a second that Moyesie would have trusted the 19-year-old enough to start him against Arsenal at the Emirates.
I do always enjoy hearing a prediction AFTER the event, though… I’ll have to hit up Mystic Moyesie for those EuroMillions numbers from last week’s lottery
