Chelsea have been denied a player capable of leading the club for a decade, like John Terry, because they didn’t listen to their former manager Frank Lampard. In his first spell as boss, Lampard had been eager to raid West Ham for Declan Rice but did not get his wish and the midfielder will instead be an Arsenal player this season.
Rice is due to be unveiled as an Arsenal player imminently for £105million. The move will make him the most expensive British player of all time and is up from his £80m price tag three years ago. And it all could have been different.
The England international was a target for Lampard several years ago. Unfortunately for Chelsea they never brought in their former academy prospect. On The Diary Of A CEO podcast, Lampard reminded the world of that fact. He said: “Maybe in terms of recruitment you wanted to bring in some players as the future. When I was at Chelsea before 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.’ Didn’t happen.”
Chelsea, funnily enough, are without a captain at the moment having said goodbye to skipper Cesar Azpilicueta. They are also in the process of rebuilding their midfield and how perfect Rice, now 24, would be to play alongside Enzo Fernandez under Mauricio Pochettino and to wear the armband – at least, had he joined a couple of years ago.
If as Lampard envisioned, the player came in and eventually took the armband he could’ve become one of the longest-serving captains in the club’s history a la Ron Harris, Dennis Wise and of course, Terry, who is perhaps the most famous in the Londoners’ history. The England centre-back served with distinguish for 13 years, lifting 16 trophies.
It is an authoritative presence like his that has been lacking at the Bridge in some recent seasons and it is easy to see how Rice could have been a similar leader of men. Given his connections to the club from his youth, and the fact he would’ve been joining Mason Mount who is now at Manchester United, Rice could well have spent the rest of his career at Chelsea and as a top-level captain.
The Blues may be regretting that they did not trust Lampard’s judgement over Rice, although in their defence there was speculation he at first had a vision to play him at centre-half. Still, under future managers – Thomas Tuchel and now Pochettino – he would surely have been moved into midfield where he is one of the Premier League’s finest; capable of playing as a high-level No 6 or No 8.
He could have been the team’s commander and controller on the pitch and in the dressing room. Instead it is Arsenal who will enjoy the No 41’s many qualities both on and off the pitch, despite Chelsea having kept a watchful eye on their former youth player for many years.
Chelsea can of course still make up for missing out on Rice by building their own top-level midfield. Signing Moises Caicedo from Brighton and pairing him with Fernandez would still give Pochettino a potentially world-class partnership, while teenagers Andrey Santos and Carney Chukwuemeka have huge futures ahead too.
What’s for certain though is that their midfield will never contain Rice, who has a long spell with Arsenal ahead of him. Lampard clearly rues the error from the club’s decision not to sign his compatriot. And he’ll no doubt be keeping a keen eye on whether Chelsea get Caicedo and who they appoint as their next skipper. Even then, so good is Rice, Lampard might still think the new Arsenal man should be leading the Blues out of the tunnel as he himself did on occasion.
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