“Get that English core”- Wayne Bridge urges Chelsea to sign two midfielders including Declan Rice

Former Chelsea defender urges the club to sign England midfield duo Declan Rice and Jude Bellingham

Speaking to Football.London (h/t Metro), former Chelsea defender Wayne Bridge has urged the club to sign the England midfield duo of Jude Bellingham and Declan Rice.

While Bellingham has been linked with the Blues in the last few months, Rice has been attached to potentially moving to Stamford Bridge for quite some time now.

With regards to where they operate, the former is more of a box-to-box midfielder who is an all-round player in the middle of the park. The latter is a defensive midfielder who can either play as a lone number six or in a double-pivot central midfield.

Here’s what Bridge said when asked about these two players and Chelsea (h/t Metro):

“He’s great Jude, I think he’s probably one of England’s best players and he’s going to be around a long time. Obviously Declan, he sits in that midfield, he can make teams tick sometimes.

“I’d like to see both at Chelsea. In the Premier League these days you need a lot of good players. You don’t need just 11 good players, you need 22, 25 players.

“They would be perfect for Chelsea. It would be great. Especially as they’re English, when I first went to Chelsea, you get that English core.”

While it is great to think that Rice and Bellingham would enhance the quality of Chelsea’s midfield umpteen-fold, they are not going to come for cheap.

Reports say that West Ham could hold out for a fee of around £130.7m to sell the former, while Borussia Dortmund would demand something around £128m.

So, if we are being realistic about the chances, the Blues can fund a move for one of these two midfielders. With the amount of interest these players have from other clubs, even getting one of them would be a tough ask.

But, we know Chelsea are going to be short in the midfield department soon, with the potential departure of N’Golo Kante and Jorginho as their contracts expire in the summer and no extension has been signed yet.

More Chelsea News:

• Juventus are eyeing a move for Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy
• Chelsea instantly regretted letting Belgium striker Romelu Lukaku go to Inter Milan in the summer
• Chelsea target and England midfielder Declan Rice issues the most obvious ‘come and get me plea’

Now, it remains to be seen what Blues boss Graham Potter decides in terms of the profile of midfielders he needs. Bellingham will offer more box-to-box elements while Rice controls space from a defensive viewpoint and passes it well.