Frank Lampard says he wanted to sign £100m ‘world-class’ player and make him Chelsea captain

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Frank Lampard has claimed that he really wanted to sign Declan Rice during his time as Chelsea manager.

He told Steven Barlett’s ‘Diary of a CEO’ podcast that he had plans to make the midfielder the captain of the club for a long time.

It is widely expected right now that Rice will become Arsenal’s new record signing, with only an official announcement lacking from making it a done deal for around £100m.

The Gunners have swooped in this summer to seemingly beat a number of other big sides to the deal.

Thomas Tuchel was particularly keen this summer to sign the England international, although it seems like he has decided he is hoping to stay in England.

Chelsea were for a long time considered the favourites to sign Rice for a number of reasons. This stems from the fact that he was previously an academy player at the club.

There was also the very obvious friendship between himself and Mason Mount, who was the poster boy of the club.

His game has gone from strength to strength in recent seasons, with him last campaign being described as ‘world-class.’

Lampard, who was in charge of the club when Mount was coming through into the first team, has claimed that he was pushing to add Rice to their ranks.

He said: “Maybe some players left during that period, and maybe in terms of recruitment you wanted to bring in some players as the future. When I was at Chelsea before I wanted to bring in Declan Rice. I was like ‘this kid’s going to be the captain of Chelsea for the next 10 years. Didn’t happen.”

The club have now moved their midfield transfer ambitions on to signing Moises Caicedo, with them engaging in long conversations with Brighton over a big-money deal.