Barrettinator

There is no guarantee it will be 3-5 great seasons. He's a young lad. If he spends 5 seasons, he could spend 3 continuing his development and giving you 2 great seasons. Not worth it.

Juve for me. Buffon needs that CL medal and among the big dogs, I'd rather have them win it.

Not a signing for Chelsea and I wouldn't want us to sign him either despite his immense talent. Whoever signs him is just grooming him for Madrid in 3-5 years time. Not worth the trouble imo.

Nah he still owes us at least ONE good CL campaign. The 3 seasons he has spent with us in the CL, he has been somewhere between average to underwhelming. He was probably the worst player on the pitch when we played Atletico in the 13/14 semis. Granted our team next season is going to be better than the previous teams we've taken into the CL recently but that's more reason for him to stay and push for a CL title with us. If he wins the CL as our best player or at least one of our top performers, then THAT would truly be him leaving on a high. Not this.

He has 3 years left on his contract and will likely get an extension in a matter of weeks that'll take his contract to 2022. No chance we're letting a player like Hazard ever have 1 year left on his contract. That's very dangerous.

Again, there's no evidence that Hazard wants to leave right now. I'm not saying he'll never leave. I'm saying there's absolutely no way it happens this summer. From next year, yes, it becomes likely. Which still doesn't give any assurances that it'll happen. This is like the "Aguero to Madrid" rumour that went on strongly for the past 3 years or so but still hasn't and probably will never materialize. Marca and co were also running strongly with the "Courtois to Madrid" romour until the lad came out and rubbished it for good. But then we know Courtois has a big mouth and is never afraid to talk, which is the opposite of Hazard who hardly says anything controversial if at all he speaks. Are we because of Hazard's nature of not saying much just going to assume "he wants to leave"? Come on mate.

So what happens to Christensen? Or when are we going to stop shafting our youngsters for a new shiny toy? Have we learnt nothing?

You could as well say "if Barca come calling, who wouldn't want to leave?". I'm sure Luiz would have loved to play for Barca but he didn't put in a request. Many people would argue that Barca are a bigger club than Madrid these days. They have a larger trophy haul anyway. Here's the Luiz one http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/420489/Chelsea-reject-35m-Barcelona-bid-for-David-Luiz You're not just stating, you're assuming that Hazard wants to leave when there has been no indication of that and in fact, what we've seen is the contrary. This is purely based on this notion that every single kid on the planet wants to play for Madrid and will fall over themselves to do so. Until you see quotes from Hazard or sources from reputable outlets saying Hazard is pushing for the move, it's absurd to think he wants to move right now. This fear of Real Madrid is tiring. That's like saying if Chelsea have 30m to spend on a player, they can stretch it to 70m just because the money is there. That's not necessarily the case. Perez rates Benzema very highly, just ask Madrid fans. Benzema is going nowhere. And no one is going to pay that absurd 70m+ fee for Morata who doesn't even have a full season of being a starting CF under his belt.

And they backed out of the Pogba deal because they weren't willing to pay 90m. Real aren't the bullies everyone makes them out to be. Not in today's market at least. They're not going to bully the biggest teams into selling their players.

He will cost much more than 100m if we're indeed put in a position to sell. We got 60m for f**king Oscar and 50m for Luiz. We're not going to sell Hazard for a mere 100m should that situation ever arise.

Is the Champions League not a championship or am I missing something? Also, they DID bid for Neymar. In fact, they offered TWICE what Barca offered Neymar in wages. They also tried to pull off a transfer coup again just before Neymar signed his latest Barca contract. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/10082393/Neymar-joined-Barcelona-and-rejected-Real-Madrid-for-footballing-reasons-not-money-says-Tito-Vilanova.html https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/2163147/barcelona-transfer-news-neymar-was-subject-of-poaching-bid-from-real-madrid-before-signing-new-deal/ http://www.goal.com/en/news/596/exclusive/2013/05/27/4008556/real-madrid-offered-double-barcelonas-bid-for-neymar And many other sources you can find with a simple Google search. If you REALLY think De Gea's transfer was innocently hampered by a faulty fax machine in this day and age of emails and PDFs, then you're quite naive. Woodward played the long game until the window was shut and eventually won. He wasn't about to lose De Gea to Madrid. That was no coincidence. No one is saying it'll never happen. Just that it most definitely won't happen this summer. Unless Hazard actually puts in a transfer request. Which won't happen either as he's not itching to leave. At the end of the summer, he'll still be in a Chelsea shirt. I can guarantee you that. Robben situation doesn't count as "selling club" either. We would have loved to keep him but his persistent injuries hampered his Chelsea career and we made the best deal we could get from it. We're in an even better position now than we were in the past. Didn't we also turn down Barca's 35m bid for Luiz a few years ago? And this is when he wasn't even giving us monster performances. We're not selling Hazard unless he really pushes for the move.

No, he never said "title" explicitly. He said he would only consider leaving "on a high note". Who says he won't want to fight for the CL next season (or isn't that the highest note?), especially when the board show him the signings we're going to make this summer? This fear of Real while not without basis is being vastly exaggerated. In recent history, they've lost out on two notable players who they really wanted and placed bids for; Neymar and De Gea. They can't just muscle top clubs out of their own players anymore. Especially not in the PL of today where money isn't a problem for clubs like Chelsea. Unless Hazard actually seriously pushes for a move, which nothing indicates he will do, then this whole story is meaningless.

Bayern got turned down by Arsenal last summer when they offered 35m for Sanchez. They definitely won't be offering much more now that he's got just 1 year left on his contract and could walk for free next summer. There's nothing stopping us from offering 50m even if Hazard stays (which I strongly believe he will). There have been several reports that we're going to spend a lot this summer. Might be the last big chance we get to splurge in the market before spending on the new stadium starts.

Here's a good video to round it up for you. Granted he was greedy as well.

Replace Ronaldo? Ronaldo is a first class athlete and the most popular footballer in the world. He may be 32 but with how well he's taken care of his body especially over the last 7 years, he can continue to play at a top level for another 3 years. He has 26 goals in 34 appearances for Real this season. Hardly a cry for replacement. It's not like Hazard is going to give them that output anyway. He's hardly a 20 goal a season player. And they won't get rid of Bale either. Bale will be there long after Ronaldo's gone as long as he continues to produce. And as you said, Hazard isn't pushing for the move either so this whole story means nothing. Edit: Also, dodgy fax machine? If you don't think United did that on purpose then I have a bridge to sell you.

Barcelona haven't lost a top player to Madrid since Figo (who was essentially tricked into signing for Madrid tbh). And before then, I don't even remember the last time they lost one to Madrid. Maybe Ronaldo but that doesn't really count. There's no doubt Real are interested. They had their former president Calderon coming out talking about Hazard in the press today. Desperate moves. Doesn't mean it'll happen. Hazard isn't even pushing for the move either. We have absolutely no reason to sell at any price. Roman wants to build the squad into a true European bahemoth, not sell the best players and deplete it.

Not to replace Hazard. Hazard isn't leaving. It's to play with Hazard. Hazard-Costa(Lukaku?)-Sanchez front 3 will be devastating. Also, I know this story was probably leaked from a club source and is reliable. Why? Because Chelsea want the Hazard to Madrid story to be buried by this. Massive statement if we can pull this off though.

Hardly "our" 3-4-3 as Conte didn't invent the formation of course. But it's fair to say he has broken the myth of "3 at the back can't work in England" for good. Also, Steve Holland, who's Conte's assistant, is also Southgate's assistant, so it's not a stretch to point out a Chelsea influence on that change there. Plus the team already had the personnel with players like Walker and Dier in the side as well as Cahill. On a slightly different note, seeing Bertrand do well for England and Southampton really crushes me. In my opinion, an even dumber decision to sell him than Lukaku or De Bruyne. Jose really made some transfer blunders in his 2 and half years back. It's especially frustrating because we sold him off for Felipe Luis who we then sold back to Atletico the following season. Bertrand is a lot better than Alonso imo. Would have been a very quick and energetic LWB for us right now and a Chelsea boy too.

Ronaldo is 32, not 33. And with how well he has taken care of his body over the years, he can still play at this level until his 34 or 35 tbh. He hasn't shown any signs of slowing down. Talent aside, he's a top class athlete. They're probably going to want him to retire at Madrid anyway. This whole transfer is BS and it's remarkable that we have the English press pushing for it to happen. Yet they complain that English teams aren't doing well in the CL anymore. Well f**k, if you'd stop trying to hound superstars out of the league, that might help a bit. Fully expect Hazard to sign a new contract before the season's over though. I think he'll leave at some point but definitely not this summer.

We wear blue socks every season in certain away grounds. Not sure why it bothers you. It's just socks.

I would buy every single one of these if it came out like this. Especially the 3rd kit.

For the simple fact that I REALLY REALLY do NOT want a "Morata feels like he has unfinished business at Real and they want him back" in a few years if he becomes top class with us, I'll pick Lukaku over him. There are other reasons but that one is enough. Sick of these Madrid rumours.

40 million deal reached for him apparently. Not sure how true. I don't even know much about the lad. http://m.tuttomercatoweb.com/europa/esclusiva-tmw-chelsea-accordo-per-bakayoko-pronto-un-quinquennale-953177