Chelsea missed out on signing Declan Rice for just £60m despite the midfielder being keen on the move, Frank Lampard's former assistant Jody Morris claims... with target then joining fierce rivals Arsenal years later

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Chelsea missed out on signing Declan Rice for a cut-price fee of just £60million during Frank Lampard’s time at the club, former assistant Jody Morris has revealed.

Midfielder Rice infamously joined Arsenal last summer in a staggering £105m move from West Ham and has cemented himself as an integral player under Mikel Arteta.

However, Morris, who acted as Lampard’s No 2 throughout his first stint in charge at Stamford Bridge between 2019 and 2021, has claimed Rice was also a Blues target.

With N’Golo Kante suffering from persistent injury issues, Morris raised Rice’s name with Lampard, sparking a brief pursuit that ultimately ended in failure.

Speaking on the No Tippy Tappy Football podcast with William Hill, Morris said: ‘I messaged him when we were there and said, “would you come back?”, because obviously, he was released from Chelsea as a 14-year-old.

Chelsea missed out on signing Declan Rice from West Ham for a cut-price £60million fee

Rice progressed through the ranks at West Ham before joining Arsenal in a £105m move

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‘If you actually spoke to Dec, I don’t think he thought he should have been released. There were quite a few of them that thought maybe he shouldn’t have been released.

‘It’s probably the best thing for him. He’s gone on to amazing things at West Ham. But while he was there, going into the second season I was on at Lamps all the time going, “Dec would be unbelievable for us”.

‘We need more legs because [N’Golo] Kante hadn’t played for us a lot. He’d only played about 40 per cent of the time, he kept getting injured. And I said, “would you like Dec?”, and Lamps said, “I don’t know, I haven’t really seen enough of him”.

‘About a month later, he was like I’ve been all over Dec since we’ve been having a closer look. I messaged Dec saying, “would you come back”, otherwise there’s no point Lamps going to have the conversations if Dec is still [not wanting to leave].

‘And he went, “no, no, I’m a Chelsea fan, of course I would”. So that got put in motion and Lamps started speaking to him. And it was on.’

Jody Morris (right), Frank Lampard’s No 2, claims Rice was interested in signing for the Blues

Rice lifted the Europa Conference League trophy on his final Hammers appearance

Morris even claimed West Ham would have accepted a bid of just £60m.

‘It got put on the back burner in favour of a couple of other signings,’ he said.

‘It didn’t end up going through, but at the time they were quoting around £60-65m, a steal for someone who could have easily been at the club for 10 years.’

Rice was released by Chelsea in 2013 after seven years and later joined West Ham. There, he progressed through the ranks and eventually became the club’s captain.

Wearing the armband, Rice steered the Hammers to the UEFA Europa Conference League title in his final match, before Arsenal lodged an eye-watering bid.

He has since made 32 appearances across all competitions at the Emirates.