The French footballer of the year is soon to be a Chelsea man. Eden Hazard, the Lille midfielder with the growing reputation is ready to sign a five year contract which will pay him £170,000 a week. The transfer is worth £35m. In all, with the transfer fee, player wages, and agent fee, it amounts to £78m. If this is true, then about three fourths of the Champions League prize money has gone towards the services of just one player. Oh, well this is Chelsea, and when have they shown an interest in keeping financial perspective?
Hazard had shown an interest in pursuing Champions League football for quite some time and it was inevitable he would move from the Ligue. There was some interest in Arsenal while more increasingly it appeared to be toss up between City and Spurs, two clubs that put Chelsea's Premiership season to shade. Spurs lost interest as their season fizzled and City balked at the his price tag. Moreover, Joe Cole, on loan to Lille appears to have sold Chelsea to Hazard and the London side's Champions League winning response could not have been more perfectly timed to convince him that Stamford Bridge would be his next home. The deal was negotiated by Abramovich and technical director Michael Emenalo and it involves a anticipated £6m payoff to the player's agent.
No official announcement from Chelsea but Hazard jumped the gun tweeting on his account:
" C'est désormais officiel, Eden Hazard portera le maillot de Chelsea la saison prochaine." Roughly translated it means, "I'm joining Chelsea, so you can suck on it, Mwaaahahahaha."
Here is Arsene Wenger's take on Hazard: "His creative ability, his talent for unbalancing opponents, his vision of the game, and his consummate skill in making the final pass all make him an in-demand player."
Roman Abramovich is not resting with just Hazard's signing. Next target, Hulk. Who could be prised from Porto for £30m even though the club has slapped a €100m buy out clause. Remember all the big noise about Gaël Kakuta, Jeffrey Bruma, Patrick van Aanholt and Josh McEachran, academy players touted to make the transition to the first team. It was too good to be true.
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