Hazard plans summer England move – why not tie him up now?

By: Jack | January 29th, 2012

Eden Hazard, one of the most desirable transfer targets in world football at the moment, says he is not moving this January. Definitively. Moving this coming summer, however? That’s on – fo sho. To England? Why yes, actually.

Excuse me while I shit my pants with potential excitement.

hazard
Seeking a new challenge – in the summer

Hazard spoke to Canal+ today and shed some light on his current situation. His first point of discussion was to clarify his stance on jumping ship before this Tuesday.

Not going to happen, Hazard says:

It’s impossible for me to leave in January. As I said, I will finish the season at Lille, [as] we can still win a title.

Makes sense. I don’t think many of us, even the most optimistic of supporters, actually thought we were going to be able to pry Hazard away from Lille this season. Not with the French club in a dogfight to qualify for the Champions League next season.

This summer, though? It’s time for a change of scenery. Start queuing up elite European clubs. Well, actually, let me rephrase: Start queuing up elite English clubs.

I have [played in] over 100 Ligue 1 matches, I’m young but I want to know anything else. Paris is tempting with the players there now but I prefer to go abroad. I think I’m heading to England, the style of play suits me there and I think it’s in this league that I can learn as much. We know the great English clubs. It will be a club where I’m sure to play with a play style that suits me.

He apparently went on to drop a few hints in terms of his possible destination:

I don’t know for which club I’ll sign yet. Manchester, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham are all great.

No Liverpool? I like him even more now. Kidding aside, it does look like we have an excellent shot at landing this kid in the summer, particularly when looking at our alleged competition for his signature.

Tottenham appears to be a distant option, what with Spurs already featuring the likes of Aaron Lennon and Gareth Bale. They also will be more focused on securing a striking option in the summer – with Emmanuel Adebayor returning to Manchester City at the end of his loan – and are not known to have the ability to spend the kind of cash that we all assume it’s going to take to land Hazard. City, meanwhile, have the money to land him and the money to set him up for life. What they can’t offer, however, is guaranteed first-team football. Not with Samir Nasri, David Silva, Adam Johnson, Sergio Aguero, Mario Balotelli and whomever else you want to throw in there taking up spots on that talent-laden roster.

Neighbors Manchester United have three excellent attacking wingers already in Antonio Valencia, Ashley Young and Nani. They also are apparently desperately short on dough – though that can be disputed. Arsenal could find a place in their starting XI for Hazard without question. The problem for them is cash, of which they do seem to have quite a bit but choose not to spend it all in one place. I very much doubt they would be a factor in the Hazard market considering the competition (i.e., transfer fees and wages). I mean, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Arsenal suddenly decide to make it rain, but I can’t see it.

That leaves Chelsea. We have the money to spend; we also have an opening in our starting XI for the player. Plus, you know, not only are we in the midst of rebuilding a team – making Hazard a potential cornerstone of the new era – but we also are in the midst of building a nice Belgian contingent at Stamford Bridge.

Hazard was apparently pried about a potential move to Chelsea by Christophe Dugarry on Canal, but remained coy.

“I bet it’s Chelsea,” Dugarry said. Hazard responded: “Well, you’re free to place your bets.”

This brings me to my headline. On this evidence, why not attempt to agree a deal now and loan him back to Lille for the rest of the season? If I were Michael Emenalo and had heard this interview, I would already be in France looking to tie the 21-year-old down long term. Borussia Dortmund already pulled off a similar deal with Borussia Mönchengladbach for the young German phenom Marco Reus. I see no reason why we can’t at least try to do the same.

We should probably temper our expectations (see Javier Pastore), but it’s difficult not to get excited about the possibility of Hazard lighting up the flanks at Stamford Bridge. As always, we’ll keep you posted as this one develops.

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Category: Quotes, Transfer Rumors

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Mateo

Its now not even just about finishing in a top spot for a CL place, its also very important for us to be seen as a big club for players to be intrested on coming, sadly right now its not the case, i have faith in AVB. but im seeing any "transition" i could cope with the bad results if i saw better football, or new faces involved, but non of those are happening and right now with ramires and lampard injured and Josh gone, we are very much quite fucked for the next month or so.
Gary

I agree. He says England, so its Chelsea or City. Only they will spend 40M. And City have too many on the bench. One omitted thought: When AVB stated that De Bryune was from a previous project, he indicated that Willian was his own idea, and Shakhtar
Donetskas confirmed the Chelsea offer. This means Willian is wanted if the price is right (being cup-tied did not stop the first offer). Chelsea offered 16M and Shakhtar want 25M, so 20M is about right. AVB also has a soft spot for Portuguese speakers. Whats the chance we will see an 11th hour bid on Tuesday? And where will this leave Hazard?
sloany

I totally agree with you, with your diagnosis of each team we do look like we are at the top of the list. However and this is a massive however chelsea have to get champions league. Just like you said lille are fighting to win ligue 1 and if they do win it or qualify for champions league and we don't then he will defiantly not want to come to us. So we need to bring in a creative player in January to help us secure forth or third place because at the moment we are toothless in attack it is shocking how we have no creativity.
Jack

As toothless as we have been, I still think we're favorites for fourth. What we are forgetting is that our rivals for the spot also feature glaring deficiencies. Though I'd like to see us improve (for the right price) this January, I think we have a great shot at securing a CL spot regardless.
Nigel_lkb

He could just be baiting Real Madrid and/or Barca. He has said before he wanted to go to Madrid. Call me pessimistic but I find it hard to imagine world class players like Neymar and Hazard wanting to come to old CFC when Spain beckons.
Jack

Barca and Real can't horde up all the talent forever. Some of these kids actually do want to play football rather than sit on the bench. I think we have a great shot at snapping up some of this talent in the summer.
Chenlsea

Waiting the 01/31 minute-by-minute transfer saga. So Hazard is a settled Summer story. But for Chelsea to secure top 4th finish, I bet that we have to at least sign one more creative player.
Yiddo

he'll go to spurs they play entertaining football unlike chelski
Tony

Apparently, he's not looking for a team that plays Champions League once in four years. That's Spuds for you!
Maysam

With the type of salary policy Tottenham has, not only they will lose all players to United,City or Chelsea, they also lose all their stars when their contract expires ...
Blue

dream on..
Jack

Yeah, good luck with that.
Joshua Sutton

Can we have a minute-by-minute blog on deadline day? Complete with predictions for when Harry will be in the car on the phone? Please?
Jack

Perhaps. I have a pretty full day, but would like to do what we've been doing the last few windows. Watch this space.
Joshua Sutton

As long as you cover 'Arry's in the car on the phone moment, I'm good.
CharlieFineman

That's encouraging to hear. Agree with you Jack, although if we're not his preferred destination, he'll probably want to see the money on offer from the mentioned clubs before he signs and I'll hate to see us start a bidding war with Man City. Still, why not give it a try now?