---
title: "Fans react as Rice reveals how family ditched Chelsea for West Ham"
canonical: "https://readwestham.com/2019/09/04/fans-react-as-rice-reveals-how-family-ditched-chelsea-for-west-ham/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Alex Turk"
section: "Feature Writers"
published: "2019-09-04T06:00:01Z"
modified: "2019-09-04T06:00:01Z"
---

# Fans react as Rice reveals how family ditched Chelsea for West Ham

Declan Rice has revealed his family switched Chelsea for West Ham United when he did the same following his release by the Blues all those years ago.

The England international was released in 2014, but has since shot to prominence for the Hammers and is now one of the most promising defensive midfielders in the Premier League.

Speaking to FourFourTwo, cited by [West Ham News](https://twitter.com/whufc_news/status/1168581382890803200), Rice explained how he went from being devastated at his Chelsea release, to becoming a West Ham fan ‘home and away’:

> I was distraught. I’d grown up as a Chelsea fan. Now they’re probably looking back on it thinking, ‘Maybe we’ve messed up here’. My family haven’t been to a Chelsea game in years – we’re just West Ham now, home and away. It’s special here.

Plenty of West Ham fans are loving the 20-year-old’s latest comments about their London rivals…

> Twitter: @whufc\_news The boy knows we’re a great family.![⚒](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/12.0.0-1/svg/2692.svg)![⚒](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/12.0.0-1/svg/2692.svg)![⚒](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/12.0.0-1/svg/2692.svg) (@samantha\_g06)

> Twitter: @whufc\_news https://t.co/dr7RBYh69G (@robb\_clark)

> Twitter: @whufc\_news My man ![?](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/12.0.0-1/svg/1f44a.svg) (@IronsJparsons)

### read west ham’s verdict

Frank Lampard targeting Rice in the future really wouldn’t be surprising, being young and English, and he’ll be ruing the day Chelsea let him go.

It genuinely seems like the holding midfield star is intent on staying at the London Stadium for years to come though, which will come as music to the ears of many fans.

Great things are destined for Rice, who at the end of this season will already be closing in on 100 appearances for the Irons.