Revealed- Frank Lampard says Chelsea turned down chance to sign star who is heading to Arsenal for £105m

Chelsea legend Frank Lampard says the club have missed a trick by allowing West Ham midfielder Declan Rice to move to Arsenal even if the fee is going to be a British record.

Rice was at Chelsea and was even deemed not good enough and released before he found his feet at West Ham and led them to win their first-ever European trophy in over 40 years last season.

He has also been a key man for England in the last couple of seasons, with the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea all looking at him, but it’s Arsenal who will get his signature.

Speaking on the Diary of a CEO podcast, Lampard insisted he pressed Chelsea to go all out for him, said: “I wanted to bring in Declan Rice. I was like ‘This kid is going to be the captain of Chelsea for the next 10 years’. It didn’t happen, anyway, it is hard to dissect people’s work.”

The former England midfielder also insisted he does not regret taking up the Chelsea job last summer despite winning just one game in 11 matches and failing to create a buzz, leading to a disappointing end to a challenging campaign.

He, however, admitted it would have been great to have a smaller squad to be able to drill his ideas and motivate them, he added:

“The biggest thing about the low standards was the size of the squad. The motivation was tough with players outside the Champions League squad.”

Chelsea have since moved on to appoint Mauricio Pochettino as their manager and getting ready to fly out to America for the second half of their pre-season training.