Chelsea head coach Thomas Tuchel says he rates West Ham United midfielder Declan Rice “very highly” but hasn’t given any thought over an approach for the England international given the Blues are unable to buy or sell players until the current takeover process is complete. Tuchel spoke earlier in the campaign about Rice being a “Chelsea boy” given he honed his trade in the club’s academy. And ahead of the Irons’ visit this time around, the Blues boss was asked how he rated the England international among his contemporaries in the Premier League.
Thomas Tuchel replied: “Very highly. 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]. That’s the most important thing. It feels like he plays every single game. He is available, is captain, plays with a lot of responsibility, is a physical player, very strategic-minded player, a key player for his team, and is strong at set-pieces. This is not a surprise. Everybody sees this. He is a huge part of the success of West Ham and it is impressive.”
West Ham continue to insist that Rice isn’t for sale this summer, although the club’s manager, David Moyes, stated at the start of the month it would require an offer of around £150million for the club to enter discussions with interested parties.
Thomas Tuchel said: “It means there are only certain clubs that could even consider it. Such an exorbitant asking price would put Rice beyond the majority of clubs in world football, perhaps even Chelsea. 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.”
