Sources: Midfielder updates - Chelsea have contingency plan for Declan Rice ready to go

Declan Rice stays the priority, but nothing has advanced yet

As Declan Rice’s concentration and mind stays firmly on the Euros right now, Chelsea are devising their midfield plan for the coming season.

The view is shared both by the board and by Thomas Tuchel that a new midfielder should be quite a high priority this window, behind a new striker.

Declan Rice is a name being talked about in recent meetings, and he is liked both by the board and by Tuchel. Work has been going on behind the scenes with this.

In fact, Rice is Chelsea’s priority for the midfield position, but there is nothing advanced as of yet.

In my opinion, I believe that it will take a fee of around £60m-£70m for Chelsea to land Rice this summer, and we all know that he would jump at the move. West Ham have been putting Chelsea off with their valuation of Rice in enquiries over recent transfer windows, but with Rice rejecting two contract offers from The Hammers recently, you get a sense that they may well do a deal this summer.

If they don’t, Chelsea, like always, have contingency plans and back up options. The main one, as we have been reporting on here for some time now, is Monaco midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni.

We understand that if Chelsea want to land the young midfielder this summer, a lot of the early ground work has already been done in preparation for it.

Some sources, including our weekly guest insider, cfcnewspage, reported that there was a meeting due with Chelsea and the agent of Tchouemani and this is clearly accurate, as we understand big parts of this potential deal are all set to go now in case Chelsea turn their attentions to the French midfielder.

We are also told that Chelsea have spoken with the agent of Saul Niguez from Atletico Madrid, and positive talks were held there. So he is also an option, surprisingly, with him not really fitting the type of midfielder we are after. There could be other reasons for looking at Niguez, but I’m unsure what they are.

Finally, Boubacar Kamara is a player we have ALWAYS been mentioning on here for months due to how much Chelsea and even Tuchel now likes him. He can play centre back and centre midfield, and as I reported months ago, that is something that really appeals to Tuchel when searching for a new midfielder this summer.

Here is my report from February confirming our keen interest in both Kamara and Tchouameni.

However, Rice remains the priority here as things stand.

Simon Phillips