Explained: How Chelsea let Declan Rice slip through their fingers and join Arsenal for £105m

Chelsea let Declan Rice slip through their fingers twice in the past before he completed a move to rivals Arsenal for a British record fee.

Rice could have played for Chelsea

Last three Chelsea coaches wanted Rice
Rice completed move to Arsenal on Saturday

WHAT HAPPENED? The English international, who recently completed his move to Arsenal for a club-record fee of £105m ($137), could have been a Chelsea player as the Blues let him slip through their fingers twice in the past.

WHY DID CHELSEA RELEASE DECLAN RICE? Rice spent seven years at the Chelsea Academy before being released in 2013 at the age of 14 for reasons unknown to the player. Later in his career, when the midfielder established himself as one of the top players in West Ham, former Chelsea boss Frank Lampard, during his first stint at the club, wanted to sign him. His successor Thomas Tuchel too was reportedly an admirer of the English star so much so that he wanted him at Bayern Munich this summer. Even Tuchel's successor Graham Potter wanted the club to sign Rice in January this year but they eventually roped in Enzo Fernandez.

WHAT THEY SAID: Earlier in July, in a Diary of a CEO podcast episode, Lampard had said, "When I was at Chelsea before, I wanted to bring in Declan Rice. I was like: ‘This kid is going to be the captain of Chelsea for the next 10 years'."

IN TWO PHOTOS:

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Getty

THE BIGGER PICTURE: After missing out on the Premier League title last season, Arsenal are going all out in the transfer market. Rice became their third signing of the summer after Kai Havertz from Chelsea and Jurrien Timber from Ajax.

WHAT'S NEXT: The Gunners have already started their pre-season training and played their first two friendly games on July 8 and July 13 against Watford and Nurnberg. They will now travel to the USA where they will face Manchester United, Barcelona and Monaco.