Chelsea coach, Frank Lampard was widely praised for his achievements in his debut season as a manager. He secured a top-four finish in the Premier League to qualify for the Champions League this season and reached the FA Cup semifinal without spending a penny in the transfer window(of course due to the transfer ban). But this season, things have changed as the owner has backed the coach to spend money on players to achieve big.
After spending a huge in the summer transfer window that summed up to nearly 250 million euros, Lampard is still not satisfied with his squad. He wants to revamp his old midfield by bringing a marque player. The club has been chasing West Ham’s Declan Rice for quite some time as earlier reported by us but has been hugely unsuccessful to meet an agreement with the Premier League club. Therefore, they had some back-ups if they eventually fail to land Rice.
The Blues have a new target and could consider going for Atalanta’s Marten de Roon. De Roon is a midfielder who can be a proper replacement if the Board continues to be frustrated in their efforts to sign West Ham United’s Rice.
The Blues were highly keen to sign Rice this summer window but negotiations have gone in the wrong direction. The 21-year-old was and still a prime transfer target for the Stamford Bridge outfit with the Chelsea coach reportedly asking the board to pay whatever it takes to bring him.
The England international had also spent a part of his career at the training academy of Chelsea where he developed until 2015 as he departed for West Ham. Since then Rice has developed massively which saw him becoming one of the highest-rated young midfielders in the English Premier League. He is also a regular started in England national team.
Although Rice himself admits to being interested to join the West London club, the Hammers stood firm in their resolution to keep their most valuable asset of the team. If this continues, Chelsea could be forced to consider alternative options to improve their midfield.
In that case, Marten de Roon is leading the race. It is reported that the Atalanta midfielder is well under Lamaprd’s radar as a back up to the Rice deal.
The Netherlands international will be a free agent next summer and this implies that Chelsea can get hold of him at quite a cheaper rate than what was for Declan Rice. The 29-year-old made his debut for the Netherlands senior football team in November 2016 which was a World Cup Qualifiers Europe match against Luxembourg.
Before joining the Italian club, Atalanta in 2016, De Roon played in the Premier League for Middlesbrough where his club got relegated after just a year playing. He returned to Atlanta and since then, he has played a crucial part under coach Gian Piero Gasperini.
He was a part of Atlanta’s revolution in Italy where they finished the third position in Serie A after almost clinching the title. Atalanta scored about 90 goals which was a record in a defensive league like Serie A.
In the historic third-place finish in the previous term, De Roon made 173 appearances and almost eliminated PSG in UCL after two injury-time goals broke their dreams.
Similar to De Rossi, De Roon is a much-underrated player. His playing style is unique and he is the one who is actually the engine of Atalanta but remains out of the spotlight. He helps in maintaining the pace of Atalanta’s game, creating space for Ilicic, Zapata, and Papau Gomes to take advantage swiftly. He also covers the space left behind them while defending and it would have been impossible to see the high progress of Atlanta in his absence.
There is still a dilemma if he is the one Chelsea needs to focus on or keep on pushing for Rice. The summer ahead will be very interesting to see what decision the Blues make!
