John Terry has urged Declan Rice to leave West Ham this summer if the European hopefuls don't invest heavily in their squad.
Rice has established himself as one of the best central midfielders in the Premier League since making his debut in May 2017. He's gone on to play 183 first-team games for the Hammers and is set to take the captaincy when Mark Noble retires this summer.
The 23-year-old is also an accomplished international, winning 28 senior caps for England. He was part of the squad that reached the final of Euro 2020. Rice won three senior caps for the Republic of Ireland before switching his international allegiance.
The talent's rise to the top has been far from straight forward. He was released by boyhood club Chelsea in 2014 and had to work his way up the ranks at West Ham. Rice initially emerged as a centre-back before blossoming into a box-to-box midfielder.
Despite being released, Terry believes Rice still loves the Blues and wants to see him back at Stamford Bridge. Terry is arguably Chelsea's greatest ever defender, winning 17 trophies during a 19-year professional spell - including five Premier League titles.
"I’m going to get in trouble here for what I say!" joked Terry in an interview with Astro SuperSport. "You know what, Dec obviously loves Chelsea – I think everyone knows that. I think the rejection he had from Chelsea has really helped his career actually.
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"What he’s done at West Ham is pretty much incredible. We saw in the FA Cup [against Kidderminster] when he came on and scored, and again grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck. I think from Dec’s side of things, I think he’s given everything to West Ham.
"And for me, looking from the outside, unless West Ham go and make a big statement in the summer and go and spend £100million plus and say, 'We want to keep Dec and we want to bring in top players like you,' - then I think he’s got a decision to make.
"I think if West Ham go and spend huge amounts of money, bring in top players, then I think it’s difficult for him to walk away." On whether Rice would be a good fit at Chelsea, Terry simply nodded his head and said: "Incredible."
Chelsea may struggle to re-sign Rice, as they are currently banned from buying and selling players due to the sanctions imposed on owner Roman Abramovich. The oligarch is alleged to have ties with Russian president Vladimir Putin, something he denies. The Blues are currently up for sale and will be able to operate this summer if a deal is completed.
Rice has been most strongly linked with Manchester United. It's believed West Ham will not accept an offer of less than £150m for their prized asset. Speaking in February, Hammers boss David Moyes insisted the club would not accept a bid of £100m.
"You’ll need humongous money to get close," said Moyes. "I said in the summer that I thought Declan Rice was £100m. That was the sales, that was cheap, that was your chance to get Declan Rice cheap. He’s like a special edition. For me, he’s probably the best midfield player in Europe. He's here for certainly a few years."
