Former Chelsea manager Frank Lampard has revealed that he wanted to sign Declan Rice during his first spell at Chelsea as he saw the midfielder as a future captain for Chelsea.
Rice, who grew up in Chelsea’s academy was released by the club aged 15 and joined West Ham where he has made his name in 245 appearances and is about to become the most expensive British player in the Premier League.
While speaking on the Diary of a CEO podcast, Lampard said: “Chelsea won the Champions League after I left and at that point, you think, ‘what’s the next move for the team? What was the recruitment at that point?’ Maybe some players left during that period, and maybe in terms of recruitment you wanted to bring in some players for the future.
“When I was at Chelsea [during the first stint] I wanted to bring in Declan Rice. I was like, ‘This kid’s going to be the captain of Chelsea for the next 10 years.’ But it didn’t happen.”
When Chelsea sacked Lampard in 2021, the club maintained their interest in Rice and this interest was acted upon but it didn’t materialize into a transfer.
Rice would then entice Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta who made the 24-year-old his top target and an agreement to sign him was reached over a week ago with West Ham for an astounding £105 million.
