Arsenal unveiled Declan Rice following his £105m transfer on Saturday. Photo: Getty Images/Stuart MacFarlane
More than 10 Years have passed since Sean Rice, Declan's father, received the call that changed the course of his son's career. Rice was 14 years old at the time, an avid Chelsea fan and obsessed with John Terry, and the news was not good: he was being sacked from the club's academy.
It remains one of the most difficult trials of Rice's life. He said that Chelsea was everything to him. There was no expectation that he would be released, and there was no reason for this call. Speaking last year, Rice said he still does not know why the club decided that he did not meet the required standard.
Of course, he has his suspicions. At the time of the decision, Rice was experiencing a huge growth spurt. His coordination was impaired and his running strength decreased. In a year-long group that was ridiculously talented, Rice simply didn't stand out from the rest.
Looking back, now that Rice has signed a £105 million contract with Arsenal, the obvious conclusion is that Chelsea then made a serious mistake. For some time now, their fans have understandably asked why the club didn't see what Rice could become and how they didn't appreciate the talent they had.
All these years later, however, there is another question that is just as exciting, if not more so: Why didn't Rice return to Chelsea? It was always expected in the game that he would eventually return to Stamford Bridge and certainly many of the Chelsea managers wanted that to happen. Instead, he joined Arsenal.
It can be argued that Chelsea missed Rice not once, but twice. First, at the age of 14, and second, after his breakthrough at West Ham United. He was a Chelsea supporter as a child, grew up on the road and is friends with academy graduate Mason Mount (pictured below, third from left, with Rice, second from right, and Rhys James, far left, at Chelsea as a child). Rice has been on the rise in recent years.
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Frank Lampard tried to push Rice during his first tenure as Chelsea manager. “When I was at Chelsea before, I wanted to bring in Declan Rice,” Lampard said on the Diary of CEO podcast this month. “I thought, 'This guy will captain Chelsea for the next 10 years.'
Thomas Tuchel, Lampard's successor, is also a big Rice fan, so much so that he tried to convince the midfielder to join Bayern Munich this summer. And Graham Potter, Tuchel's successor, is believed to have pushed the club into signing Rice in the January transfer window when Chelsea signed Enzo Fernandes from Benfica instead.
So the fact that Rice moved from West Ham to another London club, testifies to how quickly the football landscape has changed in the capital and how quickly things have changed at Chelsea.
Much of this obviously comes down to time. With a European trophy to his credit and only two years left on his contract with West Ham (including a one-year option), this summer would be the perfect time for Rice to leave the London stadium. And right now, Arsenal are a much more attractive option than Chelsea, not least because they will be in the Champions League next season.
Mount's dispute with Chelsea would be followed by Rice
If West Ham hadn't had that one year on Rice's contract, he would probably have been on the move a year ago. At that time, it was Arsenal that did not qualify for the Champions League, while Chelsea were managed by Tuchel and recently won the Club World Cup. The obvious destination would be Chelsea, not Arsenal.
The mount situation is also worth considering. The Mount and Rice families are notoriously close, and it's inconceivable that Mount's contract dispute with Chelsea and subsequent move to Manchester United would not have been followed by Rice. The players are so close that in the immediate aftermath of Chelsea's Champions League triumph in 2021, Mount spoke to Rice via video link from the dressing room.
Chaos in 2022/23 for Chelsea and their failure to qualify for the Champions League meant they never had a chance to sign Rice this summer. The ship that was not so long ago within their reach has sailed away.
For the Chelsea supporters who were hoping to see Rice in the blue shirt, the time of his departure from the West So the ham could not be worse. For Mikel Arteta and Arsenal it was perfect. As a club and as a project, Arsenal are arguably more attractive now than they have been for almost two decades – as evidenced by the fact that they went head-to-head with Pep Guardiola's Manchester City in the battle for a star player, and they won.
Rice grew up in Chelsea colors, with Terry's name and number on his back, and even after his release, there must have been times when it seemed he was destined to play for the club again. For young Rice, heartbroken at 14, this was a dream come true. But people change and football evolves, and Arsenal took the opportunity to make Rice, who once played at Chelsea, their own player.
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