According to reports out of England, Chelsea are resigned to a ‘summer-long transfer battle’ to keep star Eden Hazard as Real Madrid begin their typical media campaign to pave the way for his move to the Santiago Bernabéu.
The Daily Mirror state the Belgian ‘is understood to be learning Spanish’ and is keen to be managed by Madrid Coach Zinedine Zidane.
Real Madrid’s head of recruitment Juni Calafat was at Stamford Bridge a fortnight ago to watch Hazard in action as Chelsea beat Manchester United 1-0 in the FA Cup.
The diminutive forward is also said to have begun learning Spanish, interpreted as a sign that he is preparing for a switch to the Bernabeu.
But in Belgium the website Het Laatste Nieuws stated that Chelsea will not allow Hazard to leave this summer and that Antonio Conte considers Hazard to be an untouchable member of the squad, and he would like to offer the Belgian an improved contract. His current contract runs until 2020 (and Hazard earns €220,000 per week).
This is not the first time that Hazard’s camp has made it known that he would be interested in a move to Real Madrid. We went through the same thin two years ago, before the then Premier League Player of the Year, signed a new contract extension at Chelsea.
Working in Chelsea’s favor is that if Roman Abramovich doesn’t want to sell a player he doesn’t has too. Even if the player requests a move, as Diego Costa did last summer, Abramovich has deep enough pockets to tell the player no. Not even for €100 million
Do you think that Chelsea will sell Hazard to Real Madrid this summer?
