Eden Hazard’s decision to sign with Chelsea is still hot topic in football, but how good a decision was it by the Belgian?
An extremely talented player, Hazard will not have endeared himself to fans of any club with his constant flip flopping between the teams he was apparently set to sign for.
Initially it appeared he had his heart set on Manchester, with United and City set to battle for his signature. It was believed that United lead the race but at the last minute, off of the strength of their Champions League win, Hazard opted for Chelsea.
Upon joining the west London outfit, he spoke with their official channel but his comments are somewhat contradictory and intriguing to say the least:
“I spoke with Abramovich, he is very simple and loves football.
“We were on the same wavelength, he wants to confirm Chelsea’s position at the top. Chelsea have made a good investment for me but I did not put any pressure on them.
“I’ve always said I wanted to play in England. There was a struggle between Chelsea and United, but according to me Chelsea has the best project.
“I was in advanced contact with both clubs and I spoke to both coaches. I want to be playing in the Champions League every year.
“When they won the Champions League, I told myself: ‘Why not Chelsea?’ The team is young and I have a better chance to play there.
“At 21, Real Madrid or Barcelona would have been more difficult for me. If I play well enough at Chelsea, I could win my place in the starting team and my priority is to play.”
So lets have a look at what he actually said here, and lets see if we can poke some holes in what I think was an extremely weak defence of him opting for Roman’s money.
“I want to be playing in the Champions League every year. Initially, Chelsea were sixth and not qualified for the Champions League.”
I can’t be the only person that sees what is wrong with this.
Chelsea won the Champions League and no matter how much luck was involved in this, they have to be congratulated as en route to doing so they managed to beat Barcelona as well as Bayern Munich in their backyard. But in the same breath they essentially won the lottery; their league position was such that had they not won the game they would have been playing in the Europa League.
There is no guarantee that they will improve next season (although it appears winning in Munich has rekindled Abramovich’s love for spending again) and with their managerial situation still uncertain it makes two more comments Hazard made even more ridiculous:
“I was in advanced contact with both clubs and I spoke to both coaches.”
and
“According to me Chelsea has the best project”
I am intrigued as to who Hazard spoke to when he says he spoke to both coaches; has he indadvertedly revealed that Chelsea plan to hire Di Matteo full time? Or was he sold a dream by a man that may not be in charge by the time Chelsea are ready to play their first competitive game of the coming season?
At the time of signing Chelsea had no set manager in place, thus leaving an air of uncertainty about the club. This makes me even more sceptical about his assertions that Chelsea’s project is indeed better than United’s. I don’t think I’d be alone in taking the word of a man that has been running his ship for 26 years ahead of whatever ‘coach’ Hazard claims to have spoken to.
Hazard claims a conversation with Abramovich helped sway him, so did Abramovich lay out his transfer plans as well as his show him his managerial shortlist?
I think this is unlikely, so how exactly was Hazard able to ascertain that Chelsea’s project was indeed better than United’s?
Hazard went on to say:
“The team is young and I have a better chance to play there. At 21, Real Madrid or Barcelona would have been more difficult for me.”
I am intrigued as to why he even mentioned Barca and Real Madrid when he said with his own mouth:
“I’ve always said I wanted to play in England.”
Conveniently he left United out of this part because he knew such excuses wouldn’t wash. United too have a young team (younger than Chelsea’s) and he knows he had as good a chance getting games at Old Trafford as he did anywhere else.
Manchester United are not exactly overflowing with talent centrally so I, like many others, believe he would have been central to our plans this coming season.
Rene Meulensteen confirmed the high esteem Sir Alex held Hazard in in Voetbal International back in April, and most importantly Sir Alex himself confirmed his interest in, and praised Hazard on French radio after watching him play against Lyon in April, so the notion that we would have spent £32m to have him sat on the bench is absurd.
Of the 3 English teams he was apparently picking from, I, like many, would have ranked Chelsea bottom even with their Champions League win. Hazard’s actions throughout this drawn out saga have painted him as a mercenary, whoring himself to a number of clubs with his flirtatious comments and I think this statement is a poor attempt to reverse the damage he has done.
But if anything it has made things worse, as he appears to be making excuses for his choice with weak arguments. He has made his decision now and whilst I won’t be wishing him well, I will be interested in how he and Chelsea fair because he may find that he has simply boarded a sinking ship, briefly kept afloat by their Champions League win.
It will take some serious work for Hazard’s Chelsea to usurp United and City’s place atop the English game but Roman has assured him of this, and it is on the strength of this that he signed so a second coming of the Roman Empire must be on it’s way!
I wouldn’t hold my breath though.
And i’m happy that we are going for kagawa. He’s genuine and more effective than hazard. People doesn’t consider him better Just because he’s not an attention seeker.
With United its take it or leave it. We dont have a policy of begging players to join. And no player is guaranteed to play in the first team, you have to fight for your place.
On that note, welcome Kagawa !!
2 hrs ago, the Shinji Kagawa transfer to Old Trafford was set, according to german newspapers. And you know what? we actually dont need greedy-Hazard or a greedy Snejder. I saw lot of matches of the BVB last season, and he is as good as Hazard. Oh and by the way for the Chelskis, the transfer of one or two players doesnt make a team better, if they arent leaded and if they cant handle teamwork. And I will lmao if he turns out as the new Torres. Chelski is still crap and having no history, and the whole one billion Abramovitch invested (ManShitty even more) wont give you a history or a title-insurance. And @Tim: Fuck off yourself, like you said, the only thing they will do is “cum”.
fuck u all……hazard has made d right decision to join d blue army…and im sure he will lead us to glory and destroy d devils with d annoyin tails which like 2 show off…keeep ur kagawa urself n ur fast becomin grandfathers….(scholes n giggs)..
hey punk,fork ur shitty chelsea and look at the utd squad,so descent and organized,we ar nt some club that wnts to buy glory,we make history so when utd are talking just kip ur fucked ass quote to urself.
Lets be fair hear chaps, i am a United fan and i think Hazard is a great signing for Chelsea and i would have like to see him don United shirt.Trust me i am also disappointed he joined Chelsea but lets not let anger get da better of us.What is clear though is that the agent greed is the reason we lost him to blues.Apparently da agent wanted 6million and with these behaviour one wonders in few yrs tym when Hazard will be a superstar, Florentino Perez will invite his agent for dinner promise him cash and the rest is history.The boy has always said he would like to play for Madrid or Barca so it might be another CR7 to Madrid in few yrs tym.But good luck to Hazard and Chelsea for da future.One thing i disagree with that Bastard is how Chelsea project is better than United.United is build on winning mentality and you dont need project presentations you just have to look at the culture, the continuous hunger for success.All the idiots who think United is going down you might have to think twice again.GLORY GLORY GLORY MAN UNITED ! ! !
I’m afraid most of you United fans already know that last year signaled the end of an era. United’s era most specific. SAF may sit one or two years more in the bench and most of your ”winning title” team are in the wrong side of 30’s. Vidic, Evra, Giggs and Scholes are all fading stars of the past and unfortunately for you only Rooney seems to be in the same mould. There are some talented youngsters in there but they don’t have the potential to reach the highs of the past. Chelsea’s project on the other hand is based in a very talented young stars of today (Mata, Ramires, Ivanovic, David Luiz, Cahill,Mikel, Torres) and a whole bunch of exciting youngsters who are poised to be the stars of tomorrow (Courtois, Bertrand, Romeu, McEchran, Hazard, Marin, Lukaku, De Bruyne, Sturridge, Piazon). You see we are about to kickstart a bright future based on the success of the past decade. Ultimately we’ll be there , where you are but instead of envying others we’ll try to build a new team over and over again.
hey dush,what are you saying,ur fifty millions signing from liverpool did he score more than giggs tlkless of all my future stars like the likes of henandez and others and moreso hw many goals has ur so called future stars scored in this past season?if u dont av nthin to say just read the news and gossip and go fuck urself.
I’m not one of those people who think footballers only care about money. But in this case it’s clear that’s what it was about. It’s claimed that Chelsea are paying him £170,000 a week. United would (quite rightly) not have tried to match that and nor would City as they are trying to reduce their wage bill. Any interest from Madrid or Barcelona seems to exist in Hazard’s immagination only.
In fact I’m not convinced that United or City made serious attempts to sign him. All we have is Hazard’s rather arrogant statements about which team he might grace with his presence next season. United have been “following” Hazard for a while but that doesn’t mean we made a bid. In fact it would be odd given that we had already put in an offer for Kagawa. Why would we sign two attacking central midfielders?
I expect Hazard will be a success, if his ego doesn’t get the better of him, and Chelsea will be fine as long as Abramovich keeps pumping the money in. But we won’t miss him. If we get Kagawa plus a defensive midfielder this summer I’ll be very happy.
Don’t worry, Shinji Kagawa transfer is allready settled since today 🙂 He only needs medical and working permit. ( According to german newspapers, and Manchester Uunited)
lets welcom kagawa and wish bioharzad well @ chelsea.
Let Shinji Kagawa be a United mercenary. He is proven in Japan league 2,haha
What a pathetic article!!..Y is it so hard for Manunited Fans to believe that a player who should chelseafc over manunited…U guys need to get over ur jealousy, at least u’ve got kagawa…Live Hazard for chelseafc to worry about..
so sad that the football of today is abt money and nothing more,well i would say people like hazard are not welcome in utd and for those who are saying the era of man utd is over are just stupid and dumb,can’t see the big picture that even the big spending city struggled to take the league frm utd and moreso we are still the biggest brand in the world of football as of today and believe me,we will be smoken hurt next season,all hail to sir alex the greatest of all time.