Journalist Paul Brown has told GiveMeSport that Chelsea may begin to cool their interest in signing £150m man Declan Rice now director Marina Granovskaia has left the club.
Things looked destined for the Blues to eventually be the ones to sign the Englishman next summer, especially if the majority of the top clubs are in the market for Borussia Dortmund’s Jude Bellingham.
After previously being part of the Chelsea academy system, even the player himself as hinted that he can see himself returning to Stamford Bridge one day, with his good friend Mason Mount currently an ever-present in the team.
However, Brown has claimed that the two main people pushing for the club to bring the midfielder in have both now departed, leaving it unclear whether he still remains a priority target.
He said: “Declan Rice is an interesting one because Marina Granovskaia was one of the people who wanted him quite badly when she was still around. Also, Frank Lampard was a huge fan of his.
Chelsea may cool interest in Rice
“Neither of those two are at Chelsea any longer, so it remains to be seen how interested Chelsea are still in Declan Rice.”
Granovskaia was one of a number of board members to depart the club following the change of ownership, with new man in charge Todd Boehly taking up a lot of the in house responsibilities.
Lampard of course left the club a while ago, although rumours of interest in Rice continued to crop up during Thomas Tuchel’s reign.
It will be interesting to see if Graham Potter shares the same opinion as the previous two Chelsea bosses and sees Rice as the future of the club’s midfield.
With him reportedly a long-time admirer of N’golo Kante already, the big-money signing may be held for another role.