Eden To Chelsea

 

While training with the rest of the Belgium squad for the upcoming friendly against England Lille’s Eden Hazard took the timeout to tweet ‘I made up my mind, see you later.’

 

The 2011/12 season saw Hazard play 38 league games for Lille in which he scored 20 goals, made 15 assists, picked up the Ligue 1 Player of the Year Award and in his spare time linking himself with every big club in Europe. At no point did the Lille star make any attempt to quash speculation linking him with a move away from France, In fact it seemed that he relished in fuelling transfer rumours.

 

Usually a player’s agent is the one sparking rumours and gossip about his client’s future club with comments such as ‘we have many offers’ or ‘Italy, maybe one day’. In this case Hazard did it all himself, through the course of the season speaking out about his future;

‘Spain is perhaps more my style but it must be Barcelona or Real Madrid’

‘Arsenal will always be an option’

‘Maybe I’ll join Tottenham, they are a great English club’

‘Chelsea could interest me now’

‘It will be one of the 2 Manchester clubs’

Either Eden Hazard was never sure where he would be plying his trade next season or his public interest in signing for so many clubs was an attempt to start some kind bidding for his signature, whatever the reason some fans didn’t take a liking to this approach. One thing for certain is that Hazard has enough confidence in his ability to think he is able to make the grade at any of Europe’s top clubs.

 

Prior to Hazard’s tweet it was well known that his agent had agreed terms with 3 clubs, believed to be Manchester City, Manchester United or Chelsea. The only thing left to do was for Hazard to decide which club he wanted to join and put an end to his speculation.

 

Once terms had been agreed with 3 sides Hazard began to say all of the right things claiming his decision would made upon ‘the amount of play I would see and the position where I would play.’ These 2 factors made both Manchester clubs unlikely destinations; City can fill nearly every position with a big money signing and United already have fierce competition on the wings with Antonio Valencia, Ashley Young and Nani.

 

A few hours passed and Hazard used his Twitter account again, this time to reveal he would be ‘signing for the Champions League winners’. A first major signing of the summer for Roman Abramovich, believed to be in the region of £30 million. Somehow Chelsea have convinced one of the hottest young talents that, despite not having a permanent manager, there will be regular first team football in a favoured position.

 

Oh yes, probably a huge salary too!

 

Sam Jewell