West Ham not interested in swapping Rice for Barkley or Batshuayi — reports

Chelsea’s interest in Declan Rice is well-known at this point, but with West Ham’s place in next season’s Premier League almost confirmed, the Blues face an arduous task in bringing our former academy player back to the blue side of London.

An asking price of £70m has been mentioned in the past, and with Chelsea about to spend the bulk of our funds on a certain Kai Havertz, it’s hard to see us meet the Hammers’ valuation. We might try more creative offers, such offering Michy Batshuayi and Ross Barkley (no Gilmour though; sorry Moyesy!), according to The Times (via Daily Mail) and the Guardian.

Both the players have been linked to West Ham in the past (with Michy even rejecting their offer), and the Chelsea hierarchy hope that this will help facilitate a more favorable negotiation environment. However, West Ham have seemingly straight up rejected this offer, claiming that they don’t want our players nor do they want to give us their player.

This does present a conundrum of sorts for Frank Lampard and Chelsea, potentially losing out on Rice’s versatility — would provide much needed help in both defense and defensive midfield — and still trying to shift the un-shiftable and unwanted Batshuayi.

Back to the drawing board!