West Ham United’s Declan Rice has easily been one of the most talked about English midfielders in the last 2-3 years, alongside Dortmund’s Jude Bellingham. While it seems more and more evident that Bellingham will be making a move to Real Madrid in the summer, there are multiple suggestions coming in that Rice will remain in England, and possibly in London as well. 

The latest reports in England state that the Hammers would be tempted to take either Conor Gallagher or Ruben Loftus-Cheek in any deal which involves Declan Rice heading to Chelsea. According to Football.London, Chelsea are still on the hunt for new players, like Rice, but they need to trim their existing squad. They spent £600million in the last 12 months so cannot just willingly spend again.

Chelsea have a plenty of marketable who they could offload and they could also get some good money for these players. The report states that these players could give the Blues an advantage in their pursuit of Rice. Two of the players that Chelsea want to offload are Loftus-Cheek and Gallagher. These two midfielders are stars that West Ham would be willing to sign to reduce the asking fee for Rice.

The latest reports from Sky Sports state that they would accept an offer of around £120million, or an offer closer to £100million with a player as well going to the Hammers. If they were to lose Rice, then they would have some great replacements in Gallagher or Loftus-Cheek. Both have shown that they can succeed in the Premier League when at their best.

Gallagher has been featuring more for Chelsea this season over Loftus-Cheek. He would no doubt be the better option for the Hammers. Gallagher has been praised massively by many, with one calling him “one of the best box-to-box midfielders in the country”.

For now, there has been no offer made by Chelsea, but with various clubs circling for Rice, we expect them to be pushing for the player soon after the window opens. The club is also on the look out for their next head coach right now, which apparently is a position heading towards former Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino. Stay updated on Football news and stories with Nextbet.