West Ham United’s Declan Rice has looked back on his time at Chelsea.
Chelsea are thriving with their youth movement under Frank Lampard – and it has been many years in the making.
Yes, Lampard was forced into this situation due to the club’s transfer ban over the summer, but the way he’s getting the best out of his young stars has been hugely impressive.
Fikayo Tomori, Mason Mount, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Tammy Abraham have all impressed having come up through the club’s ranks, with there is plenty expected of Reece James and Ruben Loftus-Cheek this season too.
After years of seemingly neglecting their youth setup, Chelsea are seeing their young players thrive, and defender James has posted a photo of an old youth team at Stamford Bridge.
Current Chelsea players James, Mount, Jamie Cumming and Marc Guehi were in the squad, as were loaned-out Blues Conor Gallagher, Dujon Sterling and Trevoh Chalobah.
Some of them have moved on though, with Dan Kemp, Vashon Neufville, Rhian Brewster and Eddie Nketiah all gone, as well as now-West Ham star Declan Rice.
Rice was spotted in the front row of the photo, having been a Chelsea youth player before being released, when West Ham then snapped him up.
The midfielder has become an England international and a Premier League star since joining West Ham, and Rice took to Twitter to marvel at the photo, replying to James saying ‘what a team that was’, looking back fondly on his time with the Blues – and they may well feel some regret at letting him leave having seen him impress so much for West Ham.
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