Cheap price, Chelsea are nothing without him
Eden Hazard | "It's time to enjoy life drinking beers"
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
I long for the day when the best players no longer leave our shores for Spain. I don’t catch nearly as much Madrid as I do Chelsea, so for me this means I get to watch one of the best players in the world a lot less, and the league has lost its second best player. Meh.
left one shit club for another. Madrid haven't been great if anyone watched la liga. They lost about as many games as us and we are shite
Quote one of them please.
Yeah... but with Hazard, militao, Mendy, Jovic, Eriksen/Pogba added this summer, they will no longer be shit (which they were for only one season). Things change quickly in football.
Barca and Real Madrid have been the teams with the most lure for ages. Barca werent this dominant force before the mid 2000's, but they had Cruyff in the 70's, Maradona in the 80's, Ronaldo in the 90's... Its just how it is. German players will dream of Bayern the vast majority of the time, British players will almost always dream of the top British sides like United and Liverpool (and recently City and Chelsea), while most of the rest will see Barca/Madrid as the peak.
I’m gonna miss getting to watch him regularly. I don’t get La Liga 
Better chance for us to sneak into top 4?Wonder who Chelsea will replace him with.
Vs Chelsea games will be more relaxing from now on.
Yup KDB is the best in the league for me. Certainly not much between them at all.
Yeah I know that’s how it’s always been, and likely always to remain that way. Real and Barca are footballing royalty. They’ll always be on a level of their own. It just kinda sucks for the rest of us, you know? As someone who always wants to see the best players in our league, it’s annoying to see them still packing up and heading to Spain. Even with all the money on offer in England, there’s still nothing that can match the allure of the big two.
Even the best British players aren’t exceptions to this, as we’ve seen with Bale, and I’m sure at some point Madrid will try to come in for Kane, especially if Jovic doesn’t work out.
Chelsea director Marina Granovskaia said:
‘Although it is with sadness we say goodbye to Eden and we made it absolutely clear to him the club wished him to stay, we respect the decision he has made to take on a new challenge in a different country and follow his childhood dream of playing for Real Madrid.
‘The memories he leaves us with will not fade. He provided all who watched Chelsea play with great entertainment and many match-winning contributions, and for that we thank Eden enormously. He has been a model professional throughout his time at the club, a wonderful individual to have around and a joy to work with. We look forward to welcoming him back to Stamford Bridge in the future".
Eden Hazard said:
To my Chelsea friends and family,
You now know that I will be joining Real Madrid. It’s no secret that it was my dream to play for them since I was a young boy just scoring my first goal. I have tried my very best not to distract myself or the team through this difficult period of speculation and media attention, especially the last 6 months.
Now the Clubs have reached an agreement I hope you understand I had to pursue my next chapter, just as each and every one of you should when you have the chance to pursue your dreams. Leaving Chelsea is the biggest and toughest decision in my career to date. Now it’s in the open I would like to put on record one thing was always clear to me, I have loved every moment at Chelsea and not once did I ever consider, nor would I have left for any other Club.
I was only 21 when I joined, so I have grown up as a man and a player with all of you, you have helped me become Captain of the Belgium National team after all. There have of course been tough times, for the team as a whole and for me personally, this is professional football. However, football to me is about having a ball at my feet, playing games and enjoying every moment, we are lucky to play the beautiful game and this is always my advice to those who ask for a coaching tip! Play football and have fun!
Even when we were not playing well, I tried to do my best and this has been thanks to your amazing support. That fighting spirit, desire and the refusal to ever give up is part of the culture here at Chelsea and it comes directly from you.
When I think back over my special moments in a Chelsea shirt, there are so many, we are lucky to win many more games than we have lost. Those who know me understand it is not me to list what I have won, all I can say is each and every award both as a team and as an individual have been incredible. One day I will be able to sit down over a beer and talk about or laugh with pride about my missed penalty that set up my header to win the league against Palace, or those goals against Tottenham, Arsenal or Liverpool.
The memories are so vivid because of the atmosphere and occasion you create, I hope you always remember them with pride, as I do. Whether it’s on tour in the USA, or at Sunderland on a Tuesday night, in Russia on a Thursday, or of course EVERY game at The Bridge – you’ve always supported me and encouraged me to play football and be me – Like I have enjoyed myself I hope you have enjoyed yourselves, I am only sorry not leave with a defending award amongst my honours!
We have many great players and my proudest moments were always as part of the team. We’ve won the FA Cup, League Cups, Europa Leagues and Premier Leagues all as a family. Each one so special in its own way and of course the game in Baku a couple of weeks ago is the perfect way to sign off from a long tough season after the World Cup.
Chelsea and especially Chelsea fans will always be special to me and next season I will look for your results first. I hope that we are drawn against each other in the Champions League next season and every season so we can meet again.
Before I go, one last thank you to everyone at the Club for their tremendous effort as we lived through every moment. To all of my ex-Colleagues we will say our goodbyes at the right time but I must thank the owner Mr Abramovich and his board for helping me realise not one, but two dreams, my first in becoming a Chelsea player and today my second, becoming a player at Real Madrid.
I wish each and every one of you the very best my friends.
Eden"
From me personally, I hope he wins La Liga next season and get a runners up medal in the Champions League. Thanks for the memories, it was great.
‘Although it is with sadness we say goodbye to Eden and we made it absolutely clear to him the club wished him to stay, we respect the decision he has made to take on a new challenge in a different country and follow his childhood dream of playing for Real Madrid.
‘The memories he leaves us with will not fade. He provided all who watched Chelsea play with great entertainment and many match-winning contributions, and for that we thank Eden enormously. He has been a model professional throughout his time at the club, a wonderful individual to have around and a joy to work with. We look forward to welcoming him back to Stamford Bridge in the future".
Eden Hazard said:
To my Chelsea friends and family,
You now know that I will be joining Real Madrid. It’s no secret that it was my dream to play for them since I was a young boy just scoring my first goal. I have tried my very best not to distract myself or the team through this difficult period of speculation and media attention, especially the last 6 months.
Now the Clubs have reached an agreement I hope you understand I had to pursue my next chapter, just as each and every one of you should when you have the chance to pursue your dreams. Leaving Chelsea is the biggest and toughest decision in my career to date. Now it’s in the open I would like to put on record one thing was always clear to me, I have loved every moment at Chelsea and not once did I ever consider, nor would I have left for any other Club.
I was only 21 when I joined, so I have grown up as a man and a player with all of you, you have helped me become Captain of the Belgium National team after all. There have of course been tough times, for the team as a whole and for me personally, this is professional football. However, football to me is about having a ball at my feet, playing games and enjoying every moment, we are lucky to play the beautiful game and this is always my advice to those who ask for a coaching tip! Play football and have fun!
Even when we were not playing well, I tried to do my best and this has been thanks to your amazing support. That fighting spirit, desire and the refusal to ever give up is part of the culture here at Chelsea and it comes directly from you.
When I think back over my special moments in a Chelsea shirt, there are so many, we are lucky to win many more games than we have lost. Those who know me understand it is not me to list what I have won, all I can say is each and every award both as a team and as an individual have been incredible. One day I will be able to sit down over a beer and talk about or laugh with pride about my missed penalty that set up my header to win the league against Palace, or those goals against Tottenham, Arsenal or Liverpool.
The memories are so vivid because of the atmosphere and occasion you create, I hope you always remember them with pride, as I do. Whether it’s on tour in the USA, or at Sunderland on a Tuesday night, in Russia on a Thursday, or of course EVERY game at The Bridge – you’ve always supported me and encouraged me to play football and be me – Like I have enjoyed myself I hope you have enjoyed yourselves, I am only sorry not leave with a defending award amongst my honours!
We have many great players and my proudest moments were always as part of the team. We’ve won the FA Cup, League Cups, Europa Leagues and Premier Leagues all as a family. Each one so special in its own way and of course the game in Baku a couple of weeks ago is the perfect way to sign off from a long tough season after the World Cup.
Chelsea and especially Chelsea fans will always be special to me and next season I will look for your results first. I hope that we are drawn against each other in the Champions League next season and every season so we can meet again.
Before I go, one last thank you to everyone at the Club for their tremendous effort as we lived through every moment. To all of my ex-Colleagues we will say our goodbyes at the right time but I must thank the owner Mr Abramovich and his board for helping me realise not one, but two dreams, my first in becoming a Chelsea player and today my second, becoming a player at Real Madrid.
I wish each and every one of you the very best my friends.
Eden"
From me personally, I hope he wins La Liga next season and get a runners up medal in the Champions League. Thanks for the memories, it was great.
We've lost numerous alltime Chelsea greats since we won the CL - Drogba. Cech. A Cole. Lampard. Terry - but got on with it and won titles without them. Losing Hazard is a bit different though. He's carried us and the only player with a spark about him. Without him we really are a very dull, grey team. With all the money we have, it's shockingly bad for a team to be left so empty of any real world class flair.
Very classy that @duffer
I've seen some people moaning about the way Hazard has handled the transfer but I think he's been as honest as he could be. He's had some fun with it over the past year but every sensible person knows he wanted the move.
No chance. 2012 is far too early. For 2-3 Van Persie was the best in the premier league. Since possibly 2014/15, it's Hazard but not every year as he's had some average or poor years in between. I'd say he's been the best for about 3 years. Odd that you're so confident in your view despite being wrong.
In general if I had to pick a player from the league from 2015-2019 it'd be him. There's nobody as gifted. Nobody who can carry a team like he can.
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2012: Aguero
2013: RvP
2014: Suarez
2015: maybe Hazard, even though it wasn’t a really stand out year for him
2016: definitely not Hazard
2017: yes.
2018: KdB
2019: Aguero/Salah/Hazard.
So over the period you mentioned, there’s only one year when you can say he’s indisputably the best player in the league. Even if you average out the performance, Aguero has been more consistent even though less flashy.
I never said that he was the best player every season.
What I say is that on balance, from 2012 to 2019, there was no one else in the Premier League as good as him.
He carried an average Chelsea sides to two Premier League titles.
The 2014/2015 Chelsea side was anything but average, Fabregas despite being good for only half the season lead the league in assists, and Costa was the best striker in the league or at least top 2.
And as I have already said, over that 8 years period, Aguero has been performing more consistently, so it’s definitely arguable who has been the better player, not cut-and-dried as you made out to be the case.
So Chelsea fans are alright with this but still hate Courtois. What’s the difference? Hazard has agitated for this move for longer than Courtois but was obviously more valuable and less replaceable to Chelsea so was not allowed to leave so easily.
As for Madrid, they’ve got to give him the #7, right?
As for Madrid, they’ve got to give him the #7, right?
I think we all have a player who we underrate for whatever reason and for me it’s Hazard. I don’t know why but this is the only season for me that he’s dragged the Chelsea side to something and been truly world class prior to the seasons before where he hovered at an elite level but not the very top. No doubt that Chelsea will miss him but they’ve done very well to get that fee knowing his heart was set on leaving. I’m interested to see how he deals with the Madrid pressure.
You sure?I'll bet they'd rather have kept the player. And now the footballing world knows the fee, they're going to be hit with Hazard-Money-Tax on whomever they buy.
Pickings are also slim out there - that fee isn't going to land them a like-for-like replacement.
In new terms, I don't think it's great business from a monetary POV as it'll just trigger the carousel of them getting fleeced with that kind of fee being nothing special in this market.
It was inevitable and was going to happen, but the fee isn't that impressive for a player like him, despite there being 12 months remaining on his current contract.
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Think he's grossly overrated on the caf, but what I wouldn't dispute is that the PL is losing one of its star performers, and that's a shame. He's also one of few out there who has individual flair and charisma in an era where system players and those who follow orders to a tee are taking centre stage. The PL is lesser for him leaving, and an equivalent talent won't be taking his place.
Seems the most likely, Mariano Diaz has the #7 shirt at the moment, Bale has #11, Modric has #10.
Ideally he should be getting the #10 but that number already belongs to Modric so the club will either give him the #7 (Mariano's current number) or some other random number that is not taken already.
Don’t be sad Chelsea boys, Comunicado Oficial comes for us all eventually. It came for Ronaldo, it came for hazard and it will eventually come for pogba.
This news puts a lot more pressure on Shaw's arse.
I mean in a ideal world he would stay but it was obvious he wanted to leave. So £130m now rather than zero in 12 months isn’t too bad.
They’ll struggle to replace him especially with this ban hanging over their head though you’re right.
That is the worrying bit. Look at Modric, Bale, C Ronaldo, Coutinho .... the supposedly best league in the world keeps losing some of the best players....
Hazard wanted a move but his performance levels and commitment never dropped. He also stayed longer than most thought but don't run his contract down to nothing.
Courtois flat out lied to Chelsea fans and then went AWOL to get his move.
It's a really weird day and age where money in is definitely worse than hanging on to the player unless he absolutely wants to leave , or has done so well for the club, it would break the relationship to keep him. Obviously, Hazard falls into the latter category, and it's a bit like us with Ronaldo that he's been 'goodwill sold' but money means so little in a sellers market where like-for-like talent simply isn't moving as it generally means that money in is then dissipated and 'squandered' on lesser players who make it feel like a bad exchange.
Feels like Real have done it again - gotten a premier talent from the PL for a lesser fee than they should due to 'goodwill' toward the player of the selling club - they're absolutely genial at that, aren't they?
The last 12 months of a contract are also so different now to what they were even 5 years ago... is it better to hang onto a superstar talent for that extra year and try and get him to re-sign in the interim, or, at the least, line up another superstar to replace him, or is it shrewder to take the money early and try and use it in a sellers market whilst the rest of your team is in disarray and more likely than not to suffer in light of the early sale of #1 asset at the club? There's already some talk in here of Chelsea now being a team who could be a 6th-placer next season off the back of the Hazard sale and the likelihood the money in won't be able to arrest that.
If the ban is upheld, it makes things even more precarious, one would think. If it isn't, what are the odds of Coutinho or James going off to Stamford Bridge?
The Spanish big two will always have that draw. The difference with the Hazard situation is that he had to run his contract down to leave and gave Chelsea seven years of service. Point being that the Spanish giants economic strength is dwindling and with it their power to take these players.
Good riddance, Chelsea will be in trouble if they cant buy anyone.
Reckon he'll struggle at Madrid.
Reckon he'll struggle at Madrid.
I don’t think fans ever identified with Courtois. There was a sense he wasn’t a Chelsea player from day one. With Hazard it’s quite different. He carried the team a lot, his childhood love for Madrid and Zidane has been out in the open from day one, and also Chelsea haven’t don’t well enough to build around him.
They'll be ahead of us next year still
Well, coming from someone who I think makes very good posts that's nice to hear! I sometimes think I'm a man on an island with some of my opinionsIt's weird seeing a poster with the same random thoughts on certain footballers
Not sure he'll struggle at Madrid, the teams aren't at the standard of the Premier league plus it's not like he's competing with Ronaldo or injury prone like Bale
Anyone else happy this has been cleared up by Howard? Personally I was struggling for a while.