he's back to his best level I'd say. the difference stat wise to me speaks to how much higher up the pitch he's playing. he's making more runs in behind and receiving the ball to feet slightly less. stats may show that he's winning the ball less and they must show fewer touches in our own half and aside from when luiz plays a penetrative pass I don't recall him taking the ball off the defenders as much. stats never showed quite what a great player he is and they still don't IMO.

I think in jose's team we played in our own half more than this one and we needed him to receive the ball very deep at times. I suppose as he's a poor defender and a great attacking player it is good to see him with a freer rein and further up the pitch, but I don't think his performances the season before last were inferior. IMO his job was different then.

That football leaks thing has revealed we actually only paid £25m for hazard, if true then that is a phenomenal bargain.

18 minutes ago, dkw said:

That football leaks thing has revealed we actually only paid £25m for hazard, if true then that is a phenomenal bargain.

Especially considering ol' whisky nose deemed him overpriced and chose to buy Kagawa instead.

1 hour ago, Jonty said:

Especially considering ol' whisky nose deemed him overpriced and chose to buy Kagawa instead.

 

And Utd fans were so sure he was a better player.

3 hours ago, dkw said:

That football leaks thing has revealed we actually only paid £25m for hazard, if true then that is a phenomenal bargain.

I'm sure his agent got paid a £6m fee though, one of the reasons we won the race...so that might explain the £31-32m fee we were told was paid at the time

7 hours ago, 1905 said:

 

I watched that an unhealthy amount of times

He's our most well paid player and he's living in london representing a big team in an attractive league who has what it takes to win everything so all in all, he's in a very good hand.. Good for him, good for his family.. Unless he has some boyhood club that he's desperate to wear their shirt on then I think he's comfortable over here..

Honestly speaking only barcelona and real madrid that I think can tempt him but if he thinks it with a cool head, going to real madrid is a big gamble because the way how they treat players (robben, sneider, di maria, kaka, james etc) regardless how they perform, it's ruthless.. I take it it's rather difficult for him to be in the same starting XI as MSN for balance sake so the grass isn't always greener out there..

 

 

That football leaks thing has revealed we actually only paid £25m for hazard, if true then that is a phenomenal bargain.

Even at 32 million is steal looking at it now

I have been doing a lot of deliberating lately over lil Eden, and to my eye he is the most eye catching natural footballer I have seen in this division, probably more so than Giggs and Barnes, and horrifically Zola,❓ Naturally instinctive control,  makes it look ridiculously effortless, Two footed though prefers his right, effortlessly goes past players both ways, and has a rocket of a shot, dribbles by players like Messi, scores goals (Needs to keep improving), can pass with the best of them,  God he's good❗️

On 12/6/2016 at 06:47, dkw said:

That football leaks thing has revealed we actually only paid £25m for hazard, if true then that is a phenomenal bargain.

Any source?

On 12/6/2016 at 17:50, bola said:

He's our most well paid player and he's living in london representing a big team in an attractive league who has what it takes to win everything so all in all, he's in a very good hand.. Good for him, good for his family.. Unless he has some boyhood club that he's desperate to wear their shirt on then I think he's comfortable over here..

Honestly speaking only barcelona and real madrid that I think can tempt him but if he thinks it with a cool head, going to real madrid is a big gamble because the way how they treat players (robben, sneider, di maria, kaka, james etc) regardless how they perform, it's ruthless.. I take it it's rather difficult for him to be in the same starting XI as MSN for balance sake so the grass isn't always greener out there..

 

 

 

His value will only get higher in a few years. His skills make those in La Liga look overrated.

4 hours ago, Tibbers said:

Any source?

 

Congratulations to Eden. Well done!

 

If that goal went in wow..

He is a special player indeed. The better he plays the more worried I get about Ronaldo getting older... I know Hazard's deal runs until 2020, but maybe we should bump his salary a bit and extend until 2022/2023? I don't want you-know-who to even try to sign him. 

23 minutes ago, PythonLu said:

He is a special player indeed. The better he plays the more worried I get about Ronaldo getting older... I know Hazard's deal runs until 2020, but maybe we should bump his salary a bit and extend until 2022/2023? I don't want you-know-who to even try to sign him. 

Contract means f*** all in football apart from keeping his value up the way he is playing.

59 minutes ago, Ernie_blue said:

Contract means f*** all in football apart from keeping his value up the way he is playing.

I find it means something beyond that. Like he is fully committed to the club. He is not the type of guy who will sign a contract and leave a few months after that :)

5 minutes ago, PythonLu said:

I find it means something beyond that. Like he is fully committed to the club. He is not the type of guy who will sign a contract and leave a few months after that :)

When does a top player sign a contract in June and leave in August? If Madrid comes calling and Hazard wants to leave he leaves. It doesn't matter whether his contract is 5,10 or 20 years long. That's football and if that scenario did happen it would be upto Chelsea to get the best deal possible.

 

10 hours ago, Ernie_blue said:

When does a top player sign a contract in June and leave in August? If Madrid comes calling and Hazard wants to leave he leaves. It doesn't matter whether his contract is 5,10 or 20 years long. That's football and if that scenario did happen it would be upto Chelsea to get the best deal possible.

 

Not true at all, Costa wanted to leave in the summer and we didn't let him, the same will happen with Hazard, there is no chance we would sell him unless we get a ridiculous offer like Bale + £30m, most clubs who sell players who have recently signed new contracts do it for the money we are not a club desperate for money,  Chelsea are one of the few clubs who cannot be forced to sell any of our star players.

Plus Hazard is not the type of person who will force his way out and demand to leave, he is not a drama queen, we would tell him he is staying and give him a pay rise and that will be that.

Edited December 27, 20169 yr by pacquiao

Conte is making us a top club once again, these days we're in top 5 in the world, yes I'm serious. If the building will continue for a long time, then we will have Hazard for a long time.

6th Chelsea player to score 50 Premier League goals.

 

2 hours ago, pacquiao said:

Not true at all, Costa wanted to leave in the summer and we didn't let him, the same will happen with Hazard, there is no chance we would sell him unless we get a ridiculous offer like Bale + £30m, most clubs who sell players who have recently signed new contracts do it for the money we are not a club desperate for money,  Chelsea are one of the few clubs who cannot be forced to sell any of our star players.

Plus Hazard is not the type of person who will force his way out and demand to leave, he is not a drama queen, we would tell him he is staying and give him a pay rise and that will be that.

What sort of a dreamworld do you live in? Do you know Hazard personally? It's not about being a drama queen. In the future Real Madrid might not even want Hazard, Hazard might not even want to leave and its all hypothetical scenarios.

Haha if only football worked out how you see it, you tell a player he is staying and you get a pay rise and that will be like that. Most likely an unhappy player.

If Madrid comes calling and Hazard decides he wants to leave then he will most likely leave, that is football. It happened with Bale because he wanted to leave. Man Utd offered more money for Bale but he wanted to go to Madrid. Why keep a player who wants to leave and chances are Hazard could play like last year and you lose value in that player.

If Hazard wanted to leave and Chelsea got a good deal it will happen.

I believe Chelsea would of let Costa go if they managed to get a replacement, they was linked with Morata all summer then Lukuka, unless you are playing with 2 forwards I don't think a 60m forward was sitting on the bench. Once Athletico knew the deal wasn't happening they signed Gameiro. Just my opinion and I could be completely wrong.

I doubt we were ever interested in selling Costa. The Morata rumors were for his back up or 2nd striker.

When that didn't happen, we signed Michy