Chelsea rejected the chance to sign Declan Rice for just £60m in Frank Lampard’s time as manager of the club, according to former assistant Jody Morris.
Rice was let go from the Chelsea academy as a teenager but was heavily linked with a return to Stamford Bridge, almost up until the point he instead joined Arsenal for £100m last summer.
He’s proven to be a smart acquisition for Mikel Arteta’s side, and Morris – who worked under Lampard in his first spell at the club between July 2019 and January 2021 – has recalled how close they came to signing the England international.
Speaking to William Hill and Footy Accumulators’ No Tippy Tappy Football, Morris said: “I messaged Declan Rice when I was at Chelsea, and I asked him whether he’d come back, even after being released by the club. He was a centre-half back then and there were a lot of people who said he shouldn’t have been released when he was, but in hindsight it was probably the best thing for him considering all the amazing things he went on do at West Ham.
“I was always on Frank Lampard’s case saying how unbelievable Rice would be for us when N’Golo Kante kept getting injured and he wasn’t sure at first, but a month later he was all over him!
“So, we reached out to Declan on whether he’d want to come back and he said, ‘I’m a Chelsea fan, of course I would!’, and from then on Lampard was speaking to him and the upstairs members at the club were talking to his parents. In the end it got put on the backburner in favour of a couple of other signings.
“It didn’t end up going through, but at the time they were quoting around £60-65 million so that would’ve been a steal for someone who could have easily been at the club for 10 years.
“For me, Rice is top-drawer and I’m so excited about the England midfield we have at the minute. Rice has shown his worth in an England shirt and for West Ham and now at Arsenal with a better team and he’s performing week in week out.”
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