Chelsea still want to sign Declan Rice after £106m Enzo Fernandez deal, laying foundations for summer transfer
Chelsea still want to sign West Ham captain Declan Rice in the summer and “foundations are being laid” for a deal, despite spending £106m on Enzo Fernandez in January.
Rice is expected to leave the London Stadium in the summer as he enters the final two years of his contract, and the Blues are believed to be front runners for his signature along with Liverpool and Arsenal.
But according to journalist Simon Phillips, writing on his Substack account (2 February), there has been renewed positive on the Rice deal this week from sources and they will be going in big for Rice this summer.
“Chelsea have a desire to sign at least one more midfielder in the summer, and there are scenarios that could even be two,” he wrote.
“The main names topping the list of targets are Declan Rice, Romeo Lavia, and Moises Caicedo. But Chelsea are also exploring many other options in that area including Alexis Mac Allister from Brighton, and Kouadio Kone from Borussia.
“I’ve had more positivity from a couple of sources on the Rice intentions this week. Being told that Chelsea have made it known they will be in for him in the summer and some foundations are being laid.”
Excellent
Obviously none of us want Rice to leave West Ham in the summer, but at this point it seems inevitable so the best thing that could happen is that we can encourage a bidding war.
Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea are all capable of stumping up huge amounts of cash and Chelsea in particular have shown that they aren’t afraid to do so to beat other teams to the signature of the player they want.
There were some doubts about whether or not Todd Boehly would still look to sign Rice after signing Enzo, but that seems to be a thought of the past and now they will be in the race for the 24-year-old.
With that said, reports have suggested that Arsenal lead the race at the moment and with those two teams going head-to-head West Ham should be able to up our price to closer to £100m to be able to get what we feel he is really worth.
If he’s going to leave then we have to maximise that to be able to strengthen our own squad, so the more interested parties the better.