Chelsea learn prohibitive Declan Rice cost as trio are offered as bait

Declan Rice, Anthony Martial

Chelsea have been quoted a price of £65m if they want to prise Declan Rice away from West Ham this summer.

The Blues are understood to be very keen on the 21-year-old, who is under contract until 2024.

Manchester United are also keen on Rice, with one pundit suggesting he’s an ideal long-term Nemanja Matic successor.

However, Chelsea are looking to tempt the Hammers by offering two players in part exchange and in an attempt to lower the cost.

The Blues have already splashed out over £80m this summer on Timo Werner and Hakim Ziyech. They could also near double that spend by shelling out big money for Kai Havertz.

But their defence remains an area of concern and Lampard is said to be keen on Rice.

Although he can operate in both midfield and defence, it is at centre-half where Lampard sees the player’s future.

Having now learnt West Ham won’t sell their star man for anything less than £65m, The Guardian suggests Chelsea are looking to get creative.

As such, the paper states the Hammers have been offered both Ross Barkley and Michy Batshuayi as makeweights.

Furthermore, defender Fikayo Tomori could be allowed to join the Hammers on a season’s loan.

 

Barkley will be pushed down the pecking order by the arrival of Havertz and the return to full fitness of Ruben Loftus-Cheek.

Batshuayi has found himself behind Tammy Abraham and Olivier Giroud this season.

Lampard has done his best to publicly dismiss interest in Rice recently.

Last month Lampard said: “Declan Rice is a good player, you’re right, and I’ve known Declan Rice for a long time. He was in the Chelsea academy, but there’s no talk.

“I keep saying, about every player we’ll be asked about. Until these games and this season is finished, there’s nothing to say.”

 

David Moyes holds Rice hope

David Moyes, however, clearly hopes Rice will stay loyal to the Hammers.

“I’m confident he will be here [next season] because he’s under contract. But like anything else, whatever club you’re at even the biggest clubs sometimes sell their best players because they get the right value.

“My intention is not to sell Declan at all, my intention is to keep him. But we can’t stop other clubs making offers, but the truth is we’ve had no offers or nothing. Nobody has come to us.

Declan Rice

“He’s a really good player and I see him helping us. I hope he sees what we are trying to do. We’re going to try and add better players and add things to it which would make him excited about being at West Ham.

“If somebody then turns up and offers you a bundle-load of cash then that’s a club decision. But if you sign a five-year deal anywhere… if you sign a five-year deal with your company then you know you’re probably there for five years. It’s no different for football players unless somebody comes along and poaches you.

“My plan is, you know what I think of Declan, I think he is a future captain of West Ham. When Mark Noble comes to an end then hopefully it will be Declan Rice, so we’ve no intention of letting him go. If it does come it will need to be the Bank of England money.”