Former West Ham captain Declan Rice gave Kevin Nolan a heartwarming message about Kalvin Phillips.

Overall, West Ham have done a brilliant job at replacing Declan Rice. Concerns about what would come after him were soon erased with Edson Alvarez and James Ward-Prowse doing an excellent job in midfield since joining in the Summer.

In order to add depth and competition though, the Hammers signed Kalvin Phillips on loan from Manchester City. While he has yet to find full sharpness, there is no doubt about the quality he possesses and his fellow English midfielder Rice has sung his praises, Kevin Nolan revealed.

“Obviously, me being close with Dec and working well with him for a few years he texted me a couple of times just saying: ‘Look after Kalv, he is a great lad, you’ll enjoy working with him’,” he told talkSPORT.

“And I have. I have thoroughly enjoyed the first week or so, two weeks, now that he’s been with us. Yeah, gaffer said it, you have got to give him time. We were just speaking off-air with Andy, when you haven’t been playing, when you haven’t had that week in, week out, and you come in and sometimes it takes that little bit of time.”

“He is trying to get to know us, us as a unit and what we want because we are going to be totally different to what Manchester City are.”

It is brilliant to hear time after time how highly Rice clearly rates West Ham and he will more than likely get a chance to see how well Phillips is settling in in East London in this weekend’s London derby. It is an absolutely massive game for both teams, and it will be interesting to see if the Hammers can once again derail Arsenal’s title charge.