Frank Lampard has revealed Chelsea ignored his pleas to sign Declan Rice.
Rice is joining Arsenal after they agreed a £105million deal to buy the England midfielder from West Ham.
Chelsea have held long-standing interest in Rice, who was in their academy before he was released at 14, and Lampard felt he could be their captain “for the next 10 years”.
But Chelsea never followed through on their interest and Rice is now moving to rivals Arsenal.
Lampard, speaking on the Diary of a CEO podcast, 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.”
Rice came up during a wider conversation between Lampard and podcast host Steven Bartlett that included discussions his dismal seven weeks as Chelsea interim manager last season.
Chelsea recorded just one win in 11 games after Lampard returned in April, following the sacking of Graham Potter. The Blues finished 12th in the Premier League.
Lampard insists he had no regrets about taking the job, but feels the huge 32-man squad at Chelsea last season made it difficult to motivate the players.
He said: “The biggest thing about the low standards was the size of the squad. The motivation was tough with players outside the Champions League squad.
“In football, it is a challenge even with 20 or so players. Chelsea’s squad was so big that I couldn’t criticise individual players for dropping standards.
“I think that’s understood now [by the owners]. You see that in six, seven or eight players leaving. The intentions were certainly good.
“They haven’t signed bad players. The idea of signing them all at the same time maybe looks a bit excitable but there is a long game and plan.”
