I think the Chelsea board will end up agreeing that this is no price to pay.
I love English football. I believe that the Premier League is certainly the best league in the world in terms of drama, excitement and feel. The likes of Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City, to name only a few, are always fighting for top spots.
This attracts many of the greatest players from overseas. However, at the same time, it can also unnecessarily inflate the prices of homegrown players. We have seen the likes of John Stones, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Harry Maguire all ridiculously overpriced. It looks like Declan Rice could be next to join that list.
According to a new report from The Sun, Chelsea are considering making an £80m bid for Declan Rice this summer, which would push their spending even more. This, to me, seems like a nonsensical price to play.
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Don’t get me wrong, Rice is good. He’s one of the better young players in the league and certainly an asset to West Ham. However, I struggle to see any reason why he’s so expensive other than the fact he is English. There are much better players out there than him, albeit not many as versatile.
There’s no doubt about it, Frank Lampard likes an English core in his team. There’s nothing wrong with this, as it was seen last seen how well he can work with young English players. However, they must avoid overspending in the transfer window because it’ll only come back round to bite them in the backside.
I still think Rice should be a transfer target for Chelsea, obviously. However, paying £80m for a player of just above average quality strikes me as ridiculous and it would be hard to justify, especially given the economic crisis which the Blues are not safe from.
Do you think Chelsea should sign Declan Rice this summer?