Chelsea released him but he's now the 9th most valuable footballer on the planet
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Chelsea often engage in player trading – more often than most clubs.
The Blues signed 12 new players in the summer of 2023 – and another 13 last summer – while also letting 33 leave across both of these transfer windows.
It has been a somewhat chaotic approach to recruitment ever since Todd Boehly replaced Roman Abramovich at the helm – although Chelsea arguably made the biggest mistake of all way back in 2013 while the Russian still held the reins at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea released football’s ninth most expensive player in Declan Rice
Chelsea won’t look back on the departures of players like Timo Werner, Romelu Lukaku and Kai Havertz with much regret – although the Blues surely kick themselves for releasing Declan Rice.
Back in 2013, Chelsea decided to offload the man from Kingston upon Thames after he had spent seven years in the academy at Cobham – joining at the age of seven.
Now – however – Rice can call himself the ninth most valuable footballer on the planet.
Moving to West Ham after his release by Chelsea, the Londoner eventually amassed 245 appearances for the Hammers, captaining them to UEFA Conference League glory before sealing a £105m move to Arsenal.
It puts Rice just behind Enzo Fernandez on the list.
| Player | Transfer | Fee |
| Neymar | Barcelona to PSG | £198m |
| Kylian Mbappe | AS Monaco to PSG | £166m |
| Philippe Coutinho | Liverpool to Barcelona | £146m |
| Ousmane Dembele | Borussia Dortmund to Barcelona | £135m |
| Moises Caicedo | Brighton to Chelsea | £115m |
| Joao Felix | Benfica to Atletico Madrid | £113m |
| Antoine Griezmann | Atletico Madrid to Barcelona | £107m |
| Enzo Fernandez | Benfica to Chelsea | £106.8m |
| Declan Rice | West Ham to Arsenal | £105m |
| Jack Grealish | Aston Villa to Manchester City | £100m |
What Declan Rice said about Chelsea release
The 25-year-old dealt with his release from Chelsea well having bounced back in east London, although it still left him pretty dejected at the time.
Rice – who John Terry recently praised – was gutted, telling Gary Neville in February 2022: “Extremely tough, being released at 14 by Chelsea. Something I didn't expect at all, it was all I ever knew as a kid, it was my whole life, going there, training, the mates I met.
“That was a tough one. Like I said at Chelsea as a kid, it was all I ever knew so I thought where am I going to go, what am I going to do from here? To this day, I still honestly don’t know the exact reason. I wish I did.”
Chelsea actually tried to sign Rice before his move to Arsenal – clearly realising a mistake was made.
It just goes to show that a setback is never the be all and end all – bouncing back is always an option.
