Frank Lampard has made a huge Declan Rice West Ham United deal claim that’ll have Arsenal fans goading Chelsea.
Departing West Ham captain Declan Rice’s move to Arsenal continues to drag on but is expected to be completed by the weekend.
It was not so long ago Chelsea were the overwhelming favourites and frontrunners to sign boyhood Blues fan Rice from West Ham.
West Ham fans have endured years of incessant stories linking Rice with a move away.
The club the Hammers captain was most consistently linked with until Arsenal entered the mix a few months ago was West Ham’s London rivals Chelsea.
The Gunners will pay a British record £105m to the Hammers for Rice. A deal which falls just £1m short of the £106m record deal which took Enzo Fernandez to Chelsea last summer.
A Chelsea move for Rice always looked highly unlikely after the Argentine’s arrival at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea left Rice on the football scrapheap and broke his heart when they released him as a 14-year-old. So it jarred with West Ham fans that he would even entertain to return to his boyhood club.
Arsenal came into the equation around Christmas time and after months of talk, they now look set to be Rice’s new home instead of Chelsea.
It could have been so different, though, according to one ex Hammers academy graduate and Blues legend who knows Rice well.
Frank Lampard has made a huge Rice West Ham deal claim that’ll have Arsenal fans goading Chelsea.
Speaking to host Steven Bartlett on the latest edition of the Diary of a CEO Podcast, Lampard has revealed he wanted to do a deal with West Ham to sign Rice during his first spell as Chelsea boss.
Lampard says he told the owners Rice would go on to be Chelsea’s hero and captain for the next decade.
But the move did not happen and now he would probably be just that in the red and white of Arsenal instead – much to the delight of Gunners fans.
“You wanted to bring in some players who would be the future,” Lampard said.
“When I was at Chelsea before, I wanted to bring in Declan Rice.
“I said he would be the captain of Chelsea for the next 10 years. It didn’t happen, but it’s hard for me to dissect other people’s work between when I left the club and came back.”
For West Ham supporters it is a case of what is more palatable.
For West Ham fans of a certain age, the idea of Rice joining Chelsea was abhorrent – regardless of whether it is the midfielder’s boyhood club.
So while the gloating Arsenal supporters are making this situation very difficult for Hammers supporters to digest, perhaps it is the best of a bad situation once it became clear Rice wanted to leave and remain in London.
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