- Jody Morris reveals Chelsea missed out on signing Declan Rice for just £60m
- Rice joined Arsenal from West Ham United for £105m last summer.
- Rice has been a key player under Mikel Arteta this season.
Former Chelsea assistant manager Jody Morris has revealed they missed out on signing Declan Rice for just £60 million while Frank Lampard was still in charge.
“I texted him while we were there and said, ‘Are you going to come back?’ because he was released from Chelsea when he was 14,”
Morris told the No Tippy Tappy Football podcast.
“If you’re talking about Dec, I don’t think he should be released. There were a few people who thought maybe he shouldn’t be released.”
“It might be the best thing for him. He has done wonders with West Ham. But going into the second season, I kept saying to Lamps that Deck would be an amazing deal for us.”
“We need fresh legs because [N’Golo] Kante hasn’t played much for us. He only played about 40 per cent. He was hurting. I said ‘Do you want Dec?’ and Lamp said ‘I don’t know, I haven’t seen him enough’.”
“Then about a month later He, like me, has wanted Dec since we took a closer look. I texted Deke saying, ‘Will you come back?’ Otherwise there would be no point in talking to Lamp if Deke didn’t want to leave.”
“And he said, ‘No, no, I’m a Chelsea fan, of course I would.’ That started to move and Lampard started talking to him. And it happened.”
“At the time, West Ham valued him at around £60-65 million, which was a relatively inexpensive fee for a player who could easily stay at the club for another 10 years.”
Rice joined Arsenal from West Ham United for £105m last summer. And has become an important player under the control of Mikel Arteta this ทางเข้า ufabet season.
However, Morris, who served as Lampard’s assistant throughout his first stint at Stamford Bridge between 2019 and 2021, claims Rice is also a target for the Blues. But the deal didn’t happen.