Now that Frank Lampard has been relieved of his duties as Chelsea manager, the lengths that he was prepared to go to in order to land West Ham’s Declan Rice have been revealed.
It’s believed that the pursuit of the player is one of the reasons which drove a wedge between Lampard and his board, and no wonder when you consider what he was prepared to sanction.
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“Lampard had kept Rice at the top of his shopping list, even though a January move was highly unlikely, and wanted Chelsea to sell a host of players to help finance a deal,” a report in the Daily Telegraph (subscription required) states.
“To meet West Ham’s valuation, Lampard was prepared to sell Jorginho, Mateo Kovacic, Antonio Rudiger, Marcos Alonso and Kepa Arrizabalaga to try and finance the move.”
David Moyes will clearly be hoping that Chelsea won’t be coming back again to try and unsettle his player, who is fast becoming one of the country’s best in his position.
Just because the Blues may have given up chasing Rice, that doesn’t mean to say that any other clubs won’t be interested, so Moyes will have to steel himself for further interest and potential bids.
At present, Rice is showing no sign of being unhappy, and with West Ham up to fourth in the table, he could end up having a better campaign than if he’d swapped east for west London.