Chelsea are one of the clubs chasing West Ham midfielder Declan Rice as the summer transfer window looms, and the England international has now even been compared to Steven Gerrard.
Thomas Tuchel is set for a very busy summer as he looks to strengthen all areas of the pitch. But with both N'Golo Kante and Jorginho entering the final year of their contracts, ensuring they are well stocked in midfield has become an increasing priority.
Conor Gallagher and Billy Gilmour have returned from loan spells with Crystal Palace and Norwich respectively, but a new recruit still appears likely. Rice has been a long-term target and Tuchel was not shy in expressing his admiration for him last season.
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"He seems to be a very nice guy from what everybody tells me and is from the Chelsea academy and he proves this [his quality]," Tuchel told a press conference earlier this year. "That’s the most important thing. It feels like he plays every single game."
But the German also admitted that due to sanctions placed on then-owner Roman Abramovich, such speculation was pointless: "Maybe they [players as expensive as Rice] are even out of our league if we don’t have our crisis when you hear the numbers that are floating around.
"But as you know, we don’t speak about other players when it comes to whether we are interested or not interested because we take care of the guys that we have here. Our situation gives me a slight advantage that we can’t even think about buying or selling. So there is no need to think about it.”
Rice will not come cheap if Chelsea do want to sign him and new owner Todd Boehly may have to shell out £150million for his signature, as per the Hammers' latest demands. Rice once again started for England on Saturday afternoon in their Nations League clash with Hungary, and Michael Owen compared his abilities to those of Steven Gerrard.
"I think that sitting midfield role is a very disciplined one, I played with one of the best in Steven Gerrard but he was too good to sit there and be disciplined," Owen said during Channel 4's coverage of the clash. "He does show signs of a Steven Gerrard, big powerful, long, very good passer, he breaks the game up so well now he just adds those long sloping runs."
