Declan Rice and West Ham United come to visit Chelsea FC on Monday night, so the Friday news conference of Frank Lampard provided the perfect opportunity to discuss what used to be, and what could be once again someday.
Rice is a Chelsea youth system product, entering at age 7 and leaving at age 14, and he’s since developed into one of the top young emerging stars in English football. He’s been linked in transfer talk to all the big clubs, including Manchester United and a potential return to Chelsea.
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The subject was brought up to the Blues boss yesterday at his news conference, where he said he has no regrets about Rice moving on from the club.
“He’s a fantastic player for West Ham and England, so fair play because his journey there after leaving Chelsea and going to West Ham is a good story to hear.
“There are lots of those stories for different reasons at whatever level and that shows a strength of character. In terms of from our end, I certainly wouldn’t use the word ‘regret.’ Our academy is one of the best in the world.
“You look at our first team now, the players we have produced here that are in and around the first-team squad, we’ve got so many. And it is not easy. It is not an exact science to pick and choose whatever players.
“The academy work brilliantly here and bring through a lot of players. Declan Rice, let’s give him personal credit for going and having a great start to his career that he’s had at West Ham.”
Chelsea absolutely crushed the summer transfer window, out-spending the entire world, to the tune of £220 million. So what’s the plan for the January transfer window then? Will they be back for Rice?summer outlay.
“I don’t know about January, I’ll consider January when it’s here,” Lampard answered, refusing to be drawn into that discussion.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.