Trevor Sinclair: West Ham can get another year of Declan Rice amid Chelsea fiasco
West Ham could be set to benefit from the mayhem at Chelsea by keeping hold of Declan Rice for another year, according to Trevor Sinclair.
The Blues’ owner Roman Abramovich has been sanctioned for his links to Vladimir Putin after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and his assets, including the European champions, have been frozen meaning they cannot make any signings.
The Hammers captain was looking increasingly likely to move in the summer, with the West London club he left at the age of 14 believed to be his preferred destination, but that currently looks impossible.
Sinclair told talkSPORT: “Declan might think, ‘Well I don’t want to go anywhere else, so I might as well stay’.
“He’s loved at the club, he’s captain of the club and he’s enjoying his football – so why wouldn’t he stay?
“If Chelsea sort their house out, he might go next summer instead, and that could be a blessing for West Ham fans.”
Turned upside down
The creeping inevitability of the midfielder’s exit has become a deflating feature of this season.
But after the unprecedented turmoil across the capital it suddenly seems like there is a genuine chance of him staying.
The Manchester clubs are still a risk, but when even Sinclair himself was saying just last week that Rice was within his rights to want to leave, the assumption was that he would somehow find his way back to Chelsea.
They can’t even re-sign their own players at the moment so the prospect of them making a multi-million pound move for the Irons leader is miles away.
The 23-year-old has spoken of his attachment to staying local to London so a transfer north appears a less attractive option for him.
Chelsea are in an awful mess suddenly, and unless the sale of the club is agreed quickly, with no proceeds going to the Russian, appear to face the genuine possibility of going into administration.
Sympathy among Hammers fans is unlikely to be off the charts, and if it means their star man stays it could cause downright jubilation.
In other West Ham news, the club have reportedly made an approach for a 56-cap international striker.
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