Declan Rice wants to win big trophies, play Champions League football

Declan Rice was recently re-linked with Chelsea, with the Blues supposedly set to “reignite” our semi-dormant pursuit of our former Academy trainee, who’s into the final 18 months of his contract and looks set to trade West Ham for something better.

What does better mean? Winning and trophies of course!

“One hundred per cent I want to play in the Champions League. For the last two or three years I’ve been saying that.

“I’ve been playing consistently well for my club and I feel like I really want to keep pushing. I see my friends here who are playing Champions League and for big trophies. You only get one career and at the end you want to look back at what you’ve won and the biggest games you’ve played in.”

-Declan Rice; source: Guardian

Let’s hope Declan doesn’t look too closely at the current Premier League standings then!

While this sort of talk underlines the importance of keeping the winning tradition alive at Chelsea — the best players want to play for the best, and play to win the biggest trophies — it also underlines the importance of instituting a coherent plan for the club going forward, to enable said winning tradition in the new club order. This season may be allowed to be a write-off in some ways, but that must not be anything but a passing phase if we are to maintain the ambitions and appeal acquired over the past two decades.