Chelsea Transfers

[Vesper 30,091]

@Jason

@bigbluewillie

All my winger suggestions were for an 'under 40m quid 4th winger' for depth and rotation

IF we now assume the worst and Pulisic turns medical bust (or the ultimate problem occurs and CHO ends up a bust too, leaving us with only Ziyech as a viable true winger)

then those names I listed are not good enough to be the replacements atm (if ever)

at that point, hard pass on Hazard, who will be 30, 31yo (or if we are talking summer 2022, 31, 32yo) and is himself now oft-injured (not a chance he would come back in summer 2021 for less than 40m quid to meet my '4th' winger role, Real will end up paying us £143-145m, they are not going to take a £103-105m or so loss, plus we are never going to pay Hazard's insane new salary)

Brexit super fucks us with grabbing one potential superstar until 2023, Youssoufa Moukoko (too young and tbf, more of a striker than a winger atm), which could be good or bad (good if he ends up a bust, which is very unlikely, but bad if he is purchased before summer 2023 and he then turns into an Mbappe level talent who thus would cost £125-200m)

only wingers I rate at a starting Chels level who are WC or on the way to WC (as Pulisic IS, IF he stays healthy) are

(money for this list means nothing, age does, thus no Salah, Mane, Neymar, Son, etc, all of whom turn 30 by the late spring/early summer after next season, or before)

its a slim list, and most are not available, the ones in bold are, and even some of them are very iffy as to coming here (the first two who are potentially are insanely expensive, and Zaha is on the cusp of being too old, and Veron may be too young an not enough Brexit points perhaps, which leaves only two, ffs)

Kylian Mbappé    
Jadon Sancho
Raheem Sterling    
Marcus Rashford
Serge Gnabry    
Ansu Fati   
Bernardo Silva    
Leroy Sané   
Mikel Oyarzabal    
Mason Greenwood    
Lucas Ocampos   
Wilfried Zaha   (this is the last summer I would remotely say buy, as age kicks in by 2022, tbh, it would actual be better to buy him in January, due to age, but Palace will not sell him the except for some insane price. so his ship has almost completely sailed, he was a fool for signing that contract extension, but Palace is doing well and he seems happy, so good on him, he just will likely never be a superstar at a big club now)
Federico Chiesa   
Dejan Kulusevski    
Ferran Torres    
Diogo Jota 
Kingsley Coman  (injury-prone though, but WC talent)
Gabriel Martinelli
Gabriel Veron (only one to make both lists, he made this on pure potential, as he is potentially the next great Brasilian winger (if Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo do not push on), tbh, I do not know if he is Brexit eligible now, as he is only 18 and has no big league experience, so probably not, grrrr)

The 20th, if I were to add him (strictly on pure talent), would also be on both lists, Ousmane Dembélé, but he is very injury prone , so mentally unpredictable, and a huge dice roll

[R2D2 368]

2 hours ago, Vesper said:

@Jason

@bigbluewillie

All my winger suggestions were for an 'under 40m quid 4th winger' for depth and rotation

IF we now assume the worst and Pulisic turns medical bust (or the ultimate problem occurs and CHO ends up a bust too, leaving us with only Ziyech as a viable true winger)

then those names I listed are not good enough to be the replacements atm (if ever)

at that point, hard pass on Hazard, who will be 30, 31yo (or if we are talking summer 2022, 31, 32yo) and is himself now oft-injured (not a chance he would come back in summer 2021 for less than 40m quid to meet my '4th' winger role, Real will end up paying us £143-145m, they are not going to take a £103-105m or so loss, plus we are never going to pay Hazard's insane new salary)

Brexit super fucks us with grabbing one potential superstar until 2023, Youssoufa Moukoko (too young and tbf, more of a striker than a winger atm), which could be good or bad (good if he ends up a bust, which is very unlikely, but bad if he is purchased before summer 2023 and he then turns into an Mbappe level talent who thus would cost £125-200m)

only wingers I rate at a starting Chels level who are WC or on the way to WC (as Pulisic IS, IF he stays healthy) are

(money for this list means nothing, age does, thus no Salah, Mane, Neymar, Son, etc, all of whom turn 30 by the late spring/early summer after next season, or before)

its a slim list, and most are not available, the ones in bold are, and even some of them are very iffy as to coming here (the first two who are potentially are insanely expensive, and Zaha is on the cusp of being too old, and Veron may be too young an not enough Brexit points perhaps, which leaves only two, ffs)

Kylian Mbappé    
Jadon Sancho
Raheem Sterling    
Marcus Rashford
Serge Gnabry    
Ansu Fati   
Bernardo Silva    
Leroy Sané   
Mikel Oyarzabal    
Mason Greenwood    
Lucas Ocampos   
Wilfried Zaha   (this is the last summer I would remotely say buy, as age kicks in by 2022, tbh, it would actual be better to buy him in January, due to age, but Palace will not sell him the except for some insane price. so his ship has almost completely sailed, he was a fool for signing that contract extension, but Palace is doing well and he seems happy, so good on him, he just will likely never be a superstar at a big club now)
Federico Chiesa   
Dejan Kulusevski    
Ferran Torres    
Diogo Jota 
Kingsley Coman  (injury-prone though, but WC talent)
Gabriel Martinelli
Gabriel Veron (only one to make both lists, he made this on pure potential, as he is potentially the next great Brasilian winger (if Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo do not push on), tbh, I do not know if he is Brexit eligible now, as he is only 18 and has no big league experience, so probably not, grrrr)

The 20th, if I were to add him (strictly on pure talent), would also be on both lists, Ousmane Dembélé, but he is very injury prone , so mentally unpredictable, and a huge dice roll

I agree wholeheartedly, I rate CHO but I don't know if his heart is in this team, will need to see until next summer, Pulisic unfortunately while world class injury rigged, so that leaves only Ziyech. I think we seriously need another world class winger, worst case get another strike and move Werner as a permanent winger but don't really entertain this idea that much since it limits Timo unless we get Haaland.

As for winger without a single doubt in my mind that winger must be Sancho, there aren't any rivals in for him, United got two players in his position this summer and linked to another one so that most likely means they wont pursue him anymore, Liverpool need to sell before buying which I can't see, Barca are broke, Real have other targets, last but not least with the bad year he is apparently having it's likely his price tag might go down a little bit if not much, surely he is in the mind of our board and Frank if they want to spend big on another class winger since he is also English and helps our homegrown quota as well.

We've been linked to Dybala lately but not sure if he is the solution plays the same position as Havertz.

[Vesper 30,091]

39 minutes ago, R2D2 said:

I agree wholeheartedly, I rate CHO but I don't know if his heart is in this team, will need to see until next summer, Pulisic unfortunately while world class injury rigged, so that leaves only Ziyech. I think we seriously need another world class winger, worst case get another strike and move Werner as a permanent winger but don't really entertain this idea that much since it limits Timo unless we get Haaland.

As for winger without a single doubt in my mind that winger must be Sancho, there aren't any rivals in for him, United got two players in his position this summer and linked to another one so that most likely means they wont pursue him anymore, Liverpool need to sell before buying which I can't see, Barca are broke, Real have other targets, last but not least with the bad year he is apparently having it's likely his price tag might go down a little bit if not much, surely he is in the mind of our board and Frank if they want to spend big on another class winger since he is also English and helps our homegrown quota as well.

We've been linked to Dybala lately but not sure if he is the solution plays the same position as Havertz.

IF we move for Sancho, then we absolutely have to liquidate most all of the dregs we have

I have listed the 11 we can sell for the most dosh (we have a total of 23 or so to liquidate), and that would yield (even at very low conservative yields) £180m to £200m or so

that would be enough to buy both Rice and Sancho

BUT we need to really start selling them off ASAP

let us all hope Sarri gets a new gig and thus will squeal for his new team to buy Jorginho

[R2D2 368]

4 minutes ago, Vesper said:

IF we move for Sancho, then we absolutely have to liquidate most all of the dregs we have

I have listed the 11 we can sell for the most dosh (we have a total of 23 or so to liquidate), and that would yield (even at very low conservative yields) £180m to £200m or so

that would be enough to buy both Rice and Sancho

BUT we need to really start selling them off ASAP

let us all hope Sarri gets a new gig and thus will squeal for his new team to buy Jorginho

Did Napoli officially buy Bakayoko or was that just a rumour?

[Vesper 30,091]

48 minutes ago, R2D2 said:

I agree wholeheartedly, I rate CHO but I don't know if his heart is in this team, will need to see until next summer, Pulisic unfortunately while world class injury rigged, so that leaves only Ziyech. I think we seriously need another world class winger, worst case get another strike and move Werner as a permanent winger but don't really entertain this idea that much since it limits Timo unless we get Haaland.

As for winger without a single doubt in my mind that winger must be Sancho, there aren't any rivals in for him, United got two players in his position this summer and linked to another one so that most likely means they wont pursue him anymore, Liverpool need to sell before buying which I can't see, Barca are broke, Real have other targets, last but not least with the bad year he is apparently having it's likely his price tag might go down a little bit if not much, surely he is in the mind of our board and Frank if they want to spend big on another class winger since he is also English and helps our homegrown quota as well.

We've been linked to Dybala lately but not sure if he is the solution plays the same position as Havertz.

IF we extend the list out to include AMF, RMF, LMF, and SS's who can play winger then I would add

in bold black are NOT available

Bold Red are WC or potentially so

the 6 in big type are the best available IMHO (Grealish will cost a bloody fortune)

the last 3 in big, bold red are all super youth prospects, potentially some may be as good as anyone on the list or near it

    
João Félix    
Paulo Dybala  
Phil Foden   
Philippe Coutinho  (last window for him on any lists, due to age) 
Nicolò Zaniolo   
Jack Grealish   (insanely expensive, but would be a MASSIVE pull, I rate the hell out of him)
Bukayo Saka  
Dominik Szoboszlai (more AMF than winger tbh)
Julian Brandt 
Christopher Nkunku   
Dani Olmo    
Giovanni Reyna    
Carlos Soler (more MF than winger, he is such a sleeper, shocked no bigger team has not made a move for him, wonderful passer and can score too, sort of a poor man's Cesc Fàbregas, class player)   
Rayan Cherki  (if the summer 2021 window ends before August 17th (when he turns 18yo), he is too young due to Brexit)  
Florian Wirtz   
Julian Draxler    
Mohamed Ihattaren
Todd Cantwell  
Isco    
Thiago Almada
Naci Ünüvar

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1 hour ago, R2D2 said:

Did Napoli officially buy Bakayoko or was that just a rumour?

Tiemoue Bakayoko has impressed Napoli so much that they are reportedly already in talks with Chelsea to buy him outright for €18m.

The midfielder had already worked with coach Gennaro Gattuso during another loan spell at Milan, and since Chelsea bought him from Monaco for €40m in 2017, has also been loaned to his old club.

The cost of the loan at the Stadio San Paolo is €2m and there is no option to buy, but La Gazzetta dello Sport and La Repubblica claim there is a gentleman’s agreement between the clubs for €18m.

Once the talks are finalised for Gattuso to extend his contract to June 2023, which is expected later this month, then Napoli can turn their focus over to Bakayoko’s situation.

 

and further detail

 

Napoli are reportedly on the verge of signing Tiemoue Bakayoko on loan from Chelsea, but there is no option to buy in the deal.

According to multiple Italian sources, including Sky Sport Italia and Sportitalia, an agreement is practically done between the clubs.

The midfielder is also said to be enthusiastic about the transfer, having already played one season in Serie A on loan at Milan.

He had been linked with a return to the Rossoneri, but they wanted an option to buy rather than an obligation for €25m.

It seems as if Napoli are content to accept a dry loan – without an option to buy – that will reunite Bakayoko with his former Milan coach Gennaro Gattuso.

The 26-year-old spent last season on loan at Monaco, the club he had left for €40m in the summer of 2017.

 

 

 

the thing that is shite is that Bakayoko has played VERY well at all 3 clubs since he is out on loan (the only club he ever was shit as was, of course, us, ffs), yet what we will get for him keeps shrinking

typical market raping (as it always is in fucking Italy!!)

he was the one big buy I was wrong on (whether for or against) in the last few years, other than Kepa (I was so against the cash we dropped, I just never expected Kepa to be as HORRIFIC as he turned out to be, and I was a bit unhappy with the 7 year contract as well)

[Vesper 30,091]

we need harder players and EPL proven ones

the 4 or 5 I would love to see (and some will no doubt make some snap in rage)

all 5 are ferocious competitors

Rice

Grealish

Zaha

Caglar Söyüncü or a step down, Jan Bednarek or even buy both (dump Rudiger and AC)

 

 

 

[Milan 17,955]

 

 

 

[Blues Forever 1,232]

 

[Blues Forever 1,232]

Matt Law: "I know Frank would love to sign Declan Rice still but I can’t see that happening in January. I get the impression that Frank would still like to sign another winger, Chelsea have scouted Samuel Chukwueze for a very long time."

[MoroccanBlue 5,375]

24 minutes ago, iceboy said:

 

Huh?

[robsblubot 3,595]

Would Laporte be available, maybe?

He sat on the bench for Ake (no more than a decent player for me), so I'm wondering if Guardiola could let him go for the right amount of money.

This guy has the potential to replace Silva, imo. No he hasn't reached that level yet, but he won't be available once, and if, he does.

[Vesper 30,091]

Declan Rice and Chelsea: His exit, where he would fit in, his future

https://theathletic.com/2259864/2020/12/18/declan-rice-chelsea-west-ham/

It could have all been so different.

Rewind the clock to Chelsea’s match at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Tuesday night and the home side are on the counter-attack. It’s the last minute of an intense Premier League game and most of Chelsea’s exhausted players have been caught up field, looking for the winner. Vitinha plays the ball toward Pedro Neto and… Declan Rice intercepts. The final whistle goes and the game ends 1-1. Mini crisis averted.

But of course, Rice wasn’t wearing blue that night. Instead, Neto capitalised on the visitors’ naivety to hand Chelsea their second successive defeat. Rice is still at West Ham, whom Chelsea meet on Monday under huge pressure to avoid a hat-trick of defeats.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Rice is the missing piece in Chelsea’s jigsaw. The club aimed to make him their last big signing in the previous window, but no bid was forthcoming because they were unable to sell the fringe players required to raise the revenue for his signature. After spending over £200 million on five players, even multi-billionaire owner Roman Abramovich has a cut-off point.

But the month of January will present Chelsea with another opportunity to renew their interest and West Ham fans have already begun anxiously counting down the days until the deadline on February 1.

Chelsea would not be in the position of having to collate “Bank of England” money, as West Ham manager David Moyes put it, for Rice’s signature had they not released him from the academy at the age of 14. It’s a mistake they rue to this day.

---

“You looked forward to Declan arriving in the evenings, because when you went out to train, he’d be wanting to play one-touch with the coaches. Then it’d be, ‘Come on, let’s play crossbar challenge’, then, “Come on, let’s play two-v-two’. He was like a Duracell Bunny, he just didn’t stop.”

Coach Michael Beale knew Rice, who he says first started training with Chelsea at six or seven, was something special from a very early age, especially once he started working with the youngster while in charge of the under-10s in the club’s academy.

Rice was surrounded by talent in his age group and as has been well documented, one of his team-mates was close friend and current Chelsea regular Mason Mount.

But Beale, who is now a first-team coach at Rangers under manager Steven Gerrard, saw enough in Rice to feel like he stood out in his own right.

“I remember once we were playing Arsenal away at Hale End,” he says to The Athletic. “We were in the changing room with the boys who had travelled on their own, and then there was the bus outside with the other lads. There was a massive downpour and they delayed the kick-off, so there were the under-10s, the under-12s and the under-14s. Declan was in the under-12s at the time and he entertained the under-10s and the under-14s in the dressing room on his own, doing impressions, doing jokes, dancing and singing. He was an 11-year-old boy without a care in the world. 

“He made going to work a joy. He used to take the mickey out of the coaches as well, in that lovely, cheeky chappy way. Training was better for Declan being there, so I’m glad I didn’t experience Chelsea without him. The players in the under-16s knew him when he was an under-10. He was always mucking about with the older kids, the life and soul of the party.”

Being told he was no longer wanted by the club he adored was no laughing matter, though. It was his father Sean who broke the news to him when he returned from school one day. The news had been delivered over the phone, was completely unexpected and little explanation was provided. For a family of devoted Chelsea fans, it was devastating. Declan wasn’t the only family member to cry that day.

So what went wrong? Well, for starters, it should be noted these things happen, especially at a club with an academy as successful as Chelsea’s. Sometimes, nothing “goes wrong”. Eddie Nketiah, now at Arsenal, is another one from the same age group that they allowed to slip through their fingers. Given the competition ahead of them, neither were deemed good enough. Other teams will have similar examples.

But Rice’s cause wasn’t helped by not having one specific position. He started in midfield and was later dropped back into centre-half. In his final year, family members were frustrated at seeing him played in a variety of roles. “One week he was left back, the next he was at right wing,” a source tells The Athletic. “It got to the stage where it seemed like the only position he didn’t play in was in goal.”

Another source has revealed how the sports science department told the staff that he was still going through a growth spurt just a few weeks before he was released and that patience was required. Either communication was an issue or their advice was simply ignored.

In fairness, Rice was aware of his own physical shortcomings at the time. Reflecting on what happened in an interview while on England duty last year, he said: “I was like Bambi on ice — I was all over the place. My body just wasn’t used to itself, so I wasn’t running properly.”

Mason Mount and Declan Rice flank then-senior striker Franco Di Santo, with Reece James on the far left

Another insider has suggested that the acquisition of Sweden Under-16 defender Joseph Colley from Brommapojkarna had something to do with it. He arrived soon after Rice’s departure.

“Perhaps it was just too much traffic,” he said. “In academies, there is a danger of just looking for the next best player and forgetting what you have already. I know one of the coaches, who I obviously won’t name, felt they made a mistake when it happened. I’m sure others will accept it was one too now but hindsight in football is a wonderful thing, especially when it comes to players who are that young.”

Beale had already left for Liverpool when he heard what had taken place. He couldn’t believe it. “It hurt me,” Beale admits. “That’s how much I felt for the kid.

“It was a shock. He was going through a growth spurt, but I thought the club would stick by him because of everything he gave in terms of his personality. When you looked at the size of his dad and his brother, I always felt Declan would have the growth spurt.

“Whether he would have kicked on at Chelsea, whether his pathway would have been stunted and he wouldn’t be the player he is today, no one will ever know. But one thing for sure is that I was certain when Declan left that he would go on to be a footballer.”

Luckily for Declan, Beale wasn’t the only one to think that way. Fulham were on the phone to dad Sean within hours of Chelsea’s decision and he was training with them that very evening.

It wasn’t long before West Ham were making a call, though. Dave Hunt was West Ham’s head of academy recruitment at the time and appreciated Rice’s qualities better than Chelsea did.

“There were always a lot of good games between West Ham and Chelsea at that level and in my job I would always be there to watch,” he explains to The Athletic. “Dec always stood out for me. Whenever we played Chelsea I watched him closely.

“He was so elegant. He would always be a leader, even at the age of nine. He also played with fun and enjoyment. That sticks out. It wasn’t just because he was a good player. He always gave a level of performance no matter whether Chelsea won or West Ham won. He was consistent.

“I actually found out Chelsea had let him go from Declan’s cousin, who we had at West Ham. He just told me one night, ‘My cousin has been released’. I was like, ‘What are you talking about? Are you sure?!’ I couldn’t understand it, but I wasted no time in talking to the family and got him a trial at West Ham.

“On the first day he was involved in a session, he was the best trialist I’d seen. A trial player normally comes from the park, this kid was from Chelsea. He had a better understanding of the game than most because he’d been coached at a very high level in the game.”

One might assume that the heartbreak of seeing his dream disappear would have taken some getting over and be carried into the next phase of his career. It would be understandable.

Tony Carr, West Ham’s director of youth development, suggests it wasn’t too much of an issue. “When you’ve been told by your boyhood club, ‘You’re not good enough for us’, it doesn’t matter who you are, it’s going to knock your confidence massively. But it is a credit to his determination that he wanted to prove he had what it took to be a professional player.

“I saw a little bit of shyness at first. We didn’t go into much detail when we spoke about Chelsea because you don’t want to go over old wounds. It was up to us to make our own decisions, to go by what we saw rather than be influenced by what had happened before.

“Part of what we did was to rebuild his confidence and give him praise when it was due. He covered a lot of the basics. He was good in possession, had a good eye for a pass.”

However, it wasn’t all smooth sailing at West Ham either. They too had their doubts about a lack of physicality. When he turned 16, Hunt had to argue the case just to keep him on as a scholar while nine others in his age group were handed professional contracts. Then there was a significant turning point one summer.

Carr adds: “I remember Declan had a period where he was playing for our schoolboy teams and when he came back for pre-season, he’d grown three or four inches and looked tall and slim. One of the coaches said, ‘He might make a centre-half as well’. We played him there and he did very well there too.

“He just grew in stature and couldn’t be ignored. He’s been fast-tracked ever since. Before he made his professional debut aged just 18 for West Ham (against Burnley in 2017), I sent him a text wishing him good luck. I told him, ‘Don’t be fazed by it. Be natural. Do what you’re good at’. He sent a text back saying, ‘I will, don’t worry’. There was real confidence in his reply and I remember thinking, ‘Good on you’.

“He is an example for any young player that gets released by a big club, that it doesn’t have to be the end of the story. I bet Chelsea will be kicking themselves. But it’s been to West Ham’s benefit. We took the chance.”

---

One of the regular questions asked by readers whenever Chelsea have been linked with Rice is: why? A key factor is his versatility, that experience of being employed as a centre-half in his youth as well as a defensive midfielder.

When Rice was on the wishlist in the previous window, the plan was to use him primarily at the back. But now that Thiago Silva has arrived and made such a big impact there, the desire is to use him, mostly, in front of the back four.

As explained in September, playing as a holding midfielder is not regarded as N’Golo Kante’s best position because of his desire to go searching for the ball on occasion. Coach Frank Lampard wants someone to sit and constantly offer that protection, which would allow Kante to disrupt opponents further up the pitch.

However, Rice is used to operating in a two-man midfield at West Ham, in either a 5-4-1 formation or 3-4-3 and 3-4-2-1. He has been combining well with Tomas Soucek in particular. He hasn’t played on his own in Lampard’s preferred 4-3-3 system. 

However, Chelsea try to have one of their more attacking midfielders drop close to Kante to help provide support, so you could see the France international and Rice being used in the same way. A 4-2-3-1 formation would also work for the pair and allow Kai Havertz to be used as a No 10.

Chelsea have had issues with injuries so Rice’s record of featuring in more games than any West Ham player since the start of the 2018-19 season is clearly a plus. Over the same period, only Wolves captain Conor Coady (7,920) has more minutes than Rice (7,594) among Premier League players.

Statistics that compare him to other central and defensive midfielders in the Premier League since the start of last season (there are 101 of them) show that Rice might not stand out in one particular department, but he is a good all-round player, which is a positive given his age and scope for improvement.

Here are just a sample of them, which were compiled before West Ham’s victory over Leeds on December 11. He’s a pretty good reader of the play when it comes to interceptions and blocked passes: his return of 4.0 per 1,000 opposition touches ranks him 28th out of those 101 midfielders, though he trails the Chelsea figures of Kante (6.3) and, interestingly, the much-criticised Jorginho (5.4).

You’d probably expect to see a boost in those numbers should he move to Chelsea because the team as a collective is looking to apply more pressure to opponents than West Ham do. Per Statsbomb data on fbref.com, West Ham apply pressure to just 14 per cent of opponent touches in the middle and defensive thirds of the pitch — the lowest figure in the league — whereas Chelsea do so on 20 per cent of opposition touches, the eighth-best in the competition.

Rice’s tackling ability is elite, as we can see using data from smarterscout, a site which gives detailed analytics on players all over the world, producing a score between 0-99. According to their data, Rice is rated 98 out of a possible 99 for duels out of possession for a defensive midfielder, a criterion that considers how good a player is at one-on-one tackles given the quality of players he’s duelled with before. That’s backed up by his “true tackle” win rate (59 per cent), which is the proportion of tackles he wins cleanly without getting shrugged off or committing a foul. It is the ninth-best figure (out of 101) for those in his position.

In the air, he’s pretty good too. As per smarterscout, his aerial duel ratings — which, again, are adjusted for the quality of opponents he’s had to go up against — is 64 out of 99 from set pieces and 76 out of 99 from open play.

It’s actually fairly unique to find a player who is above average in the Premier League in terms of winning duels from set pieces and in open play, out of possession and in possession. Rice is rated 60 out of 99 for dribbling ability too, so is not bad on the ball either. Looking for players with similarly consistent figures across so many departments on smarterscout, the list is small: Nemanja Matic, Rodri, Sergio Busquets, Emre Can and Tiemoue Bakayoko, who is on loan at Napoli from Chelsea.

Rice’s passing is also impacted by the style of the team he plays for and the role he performs. He very rarely steps over the halfway line, receiving the ball in the final third just 4.1 times per 90 minutes (86th out of 101 players). He also passes into the final third six times per 90 minutes (54th out of 101 players). His strength is in his tidiness in possession: his turnover percentage — the proportion of times that he loses the ball when he has possession — is just 14.8 per cent (26th out of 101 players).

There is plenty of room for improvement and moving to a leading side like Chelsea, who are theoretically packed full of superior players, should help him fulfil his potential even more.

---

So now we have examined what he could bring to Chelsea, what are the chances of him arriving at Stamford Bridge soon?

There has already been perhaps a significant development for Rice personally. The Athletic has been informed by multiple sources that he has changed agents and is now represented by his father. Given Sean is a season ticket holder at Stamford Bridge, you might think that will hand Chelsea a clear advantage in any negotiation.

But such thoughts would be premature. Besides, West Ham’s stance hasn’t changed. If anything, their positive start to this season — they are separated by just one point and one place in the table — has stiffened their resolve. One contact suggested that even if Chelsea match West Ham’s £80 million valuation in January, it will be rejected.

Chelsea’s first task will be to find the funds to give West Ham any kind of quandary. Their priority is to reduce the size of the squad significantly and players on the periphery will be made available to buy. But January is a much tougher month to get the kind of prices director Marina Granovskaia demands. It will be even harder this season due to the impact of COVID-19 on football teams’ finances.

Several people, including one agent with a close connection to Chelsea, suggest that because of all this, a switch is much more likely to happen at the end of the season than in January, if at all. Transfer targets can always change.

It is believed West Ham have offered Rice a new long-term contract and are encouraging him to sign it rather promptly. But it is understood Rice is in no rush.

Another insider told The Athletic that the England international will take some convincing to sign an extension to his current deal, which expires in 2024. Not only do Chelsea have the obvious emotional pull, but the source claims Rice wants to join a club that can challenge for silverware regularly. West Ham won the last of their three FA Cups 40 years ago. In contrast, Chelsea have lifted 16 trophies in the last 17 years alone, including five Premier League titles and a Champions League.

One thing is for sure, Rice is unlikely to force the issue by handing in a transfer request. He has too much respect for the West Ham fans. But as one associate suggested: “There is no easy way to leave West Ham for Chelsea. There is no such thing as a perfect exit. West Ham supporters will never be fine with him going there. If he really wants to go to Chelsea, it might be a case of short term pain for long term gain. He may have to just rip the Band-Aid off.”

Inevitably, the former coaches who helped him progress have mixed feelings on the matter. “I’m a West Ham fan and I’d be devastated if he went,” Carr says. “But sometimes that’s the nature of the game. You develop someone and the big guns are going to come calling. It will be a massive profit if it happens, the biggest the club have ever made. If Chelsea throw silly money at you, it’s tough to resist.”

Even while trying to help Rangers win the Scottish Premiership for the first time since 2011, you get the impression Beale is willing for Rice’s story to come full circle.

“It’s very rare that a boy leaves and goes on to make the club wish they had him and I think that’s the scenario Chelsea are facing now. They let a boy go, he’s gone away and really kicked on. It’s worked out for Declan in the long term and if he goes back to Chelsea, that would be amazing.”

 

[NikkiCFC 8,285]

 

[Jase 43,479]

1 hour ago, NikkiCFC said:

 

Think Haaland might stay at Dortmund for another season, assuming they finish in the Top 4, and should not also forget that Haaland's agent is Mino Raiola. Don't think the club like dealing with him very much.