In line with The Athletic, the need of newly-sacked Chelsea supervisor Frank Lampard to re-sign West Ham United midfielder Declan Rice irritated his bosses.
The Blues legend has been proven the exit door at Stamford Bridge following a poor run that has seen the aspect slip to ninth within the Premier League desk, 11 factors behind leaders Manchester United after 19 video games.
Chelsea spent in extra of £200 million in the course of the summer time switch window, however Lampard needed Rice too and pushed for him once more forward of the January switch window.
Nevertheless, the Hammers instructed the Blues that it’ll take ‘Financial institution of England cash’ to deliver again their former academy participant, and no deal was struck.
Some at Chelsea had reservations about re-signing the West Ham star as they’re very cautious concerning the potential embarrassment of shopping for again an academy reject at large expense.
Lampard was eager to signal Rice after the England worldwide established himself as probably the greatest holding midfielders within the land, and he deliberate to transform him right into a centre-back, however the membership wanted to maneuver on a few of their centre-backs for that to occur.
Chelsea weren’t in a position to try this, and that additionally performed a job is the erstwhile supervisor’s failure to get his man.
Sportslens View
Whereas we might by no means understand how the Blues would have fared this time period if they’d added Rice to their squad in the course of the summer time, there is no such thing as a doubt that the West Ham midfielder would have been a top quality addition to their defence.
The 22-year-old is without doubt one of the explanation why David Moyes’ aspect are at present above the Blues, and so they might have a tough time holding on to him past this season with suitors anticipated to return calling once more in the summertime.
Manchester Metropolis and Liverpool are mentioned to be maintaining tabs on Rice, and it will likely be attention-grabbing to see whether or not they can hold their star participant away from the bigwigs as soon as once more.