Speaking on the Que Golazo Podcast, Fabrizio Romano has said that he’s convinced that Chelsea will come back in for West Ham’s Declan Rice in January.
The Hammers have long-been fighting a battle to keep their prized asset at the club, and unfortunately, it seems as though he may soon be on his way out as Romano claims that he wants to join Chelsea, and the Blues want him.
“At the moment, what we know is that the player still wants to join Chelsea, he loves the style of Lampard, he loves Chelsea and also his Dad is a Chelsea fan,” Romano said.
The journalist went on to speak about Chelsea’s transfer strategy and their very real interest in signing Rice.
“There’s still no agreement between the two clubs, West Ham and Chelsea
“Last summer, in September, when Chelsea contacted West Ham, they asked for 80 million Euros, to sell Declan Rice, that’s why Chelsea said no at this moment we can’t pay this money, let’s see in January.
“At the moment, West Ham aren’t going to change their idea about the price of Declan Rice, so it won’t be so easy, but the new mentality of Chelsea with the transfers is that we just want our top targets, we’re not going for plan B or C, we have this new mentality it’s top targets or nothing.
“So, I’m convinced they will try again for Declan Rice in January.”
This is obviously discouraging news if you’re a West Ham fan, but perhaps there is a bit of solace to take in the fact that they will likely receive a massive fee for him.
€80 million (£72.8 million) would absolutely smash the record for the highest transfer fee ever received by West Ham, and you’d like to think that they’d be able to bolster their squad massively after that financial windfall.
Of course, with Rice being an academy graduate, it will likely be sad for any West Ham fan to see him go, but the sad reality of football in 2020 is that it’s rare for a player of such talent to stay at a club outside of the Champions League places.
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