West Ham United will breathe a sigh of relief as Frank Lampard sacking means that Declan Rice won’t go to Chelsea Football Club

West Ham United will breathe a sigh of relief as Frank Lampard sacking means that Declan Rice won’t go to Chelsea Football Club
Declan Rice (left) is one of the most sought after defensive midfielders and Frank Lampard was desperate to sell fringe players to sign him for the club

Frank Lampard was sacked yesterday by Chelsea Football Club after a string of disappointing results for the club. Chelsea sits currently at 9th place in the Premier League table and are within sight for Arsenal who seek to overtake them. Roman Abramovich had seen enough when Chelsea defeated Luton Town in the FA Cup but weren’t playing good football. So a difficult decision was taken and the prodigy son of the club was let go.

One of the reasons for Frank Lampard’s sacking was his insistence on Declan Rice signing

English midfielder Declan Rice is one of the most attractive defensive midfielders in the country and a lot of clubs were vying for him. West Ham United put up a £70 million price tag on in the hopes that they would ward off potential suitors but also make a profit on him. However Chelsea has an owner who will not hesitate to pay the money for the player and had next to nothing negotiation skills. Despite that, there was significant refusal in the club hierarchy to sign him.

It was not for monetary purposes and was more of a move to not lose their reputation as Declan Rice was a former Chelsea youth prospect. He was rejected by the academy in 2015 and moved to West Ham United’s academy and rose through the ranks and finally made his senior debut 2017/18 season of the Premier League. In three seasons he has risen in value and has attracted many big clubs to try to sign him. However like every other club, West Ham United overpriced him because he was an English player. Jack Grealish and Kalvin Phillips are both valued at £80 million and that speaks volumes about pricing like these, but it can be argued that Grealish is fairly valued at this price.

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Frank Lampard was keen on signing Declan Rice as he was young and could replace aging N’golo Kante in the center of Chelsea’s midfield. Kante is no longer able to keep up with the pace of the players in the Premier League and Lampard wanted to plug that deficiency. However the Chelsea management didn’t want to re-sign a player they had rejected in the past and weren’t willing to be like Manchester United-who paid a massive amount of money to bring Paul Pogba from Juventus.

So now it is safe to say, new manager Thomas Tuchel will no longer be interested in West Ham United midfielder Declan Rice.

Also read: Chelsea players pour in tributes for former manager Frank Lampard