20 minutes ago, cRyptic said:

Serious question to everybody, could him leaving be a possible blessing in disguise? 

Maybe we relied too much on his individual skills and that might have hindered Sarri's idea of football a bit.

Just a thought...

Yeah I think so, and I don’t mean that to disparage him in any way at all. We couldn’t bring in other players of the same level to achieve the same result, so now perhaps having the team more balanced might bring out the best in the others.

It's a shame we stopped being competitive in the CL in the last 5-6 years. He deserved to play for a team fighting to win that every year.

Rumours are that we’ve agreed a £110m deal with Real. Pretty pleased with that given he’s got one year left.  

Definitely a Chelsea legend. He's one of the most talented, and most exciting to watch, players to have graced the PL and we've been very fortunate he's done so in a Chelsea shirt. He's been a huge reason for the success we've had in his time here, and he's provided some really special moments. I admire his professionalism during all this speculation and compared to the way Courtois left, he's doing it with class. 

I'd much rather he stay, obviously, but he's given us a huge chunk of his career and you can't blame him for taking his last chance at a big move, and no matter what you think of Real, there's no shame in losing a player to them. I hope he does go on to get the success his talent deserves, and I'm sure he'll always be a blue deep down!

It'll be interesting to see what we do to replace him, especially with a transfer ban looming, but we have to be positive and look forward to seeing our next superstar emerge.

46 minutes ago, JM7 said:

Rumours are that we’ve agreed a £110m deal with Real. Pretty pleased with that given he’s got one year left.  

This is definitely not a knock against you JM, but generally, I always find it a bit odd that fans are happy or concerned with player sale prices.

To us fans, the price makes absolutely zero difference. Especially with a billionaire owner.

Hazard is most definitely a fan favourite, long term player, among the best in the world that wore a Chelsea shirt for so long. He's carried us and been the centre of the team the whole time - no price can be any consolation for us fans.

Hazard puts the phrase 'one player doesn't make a team' statement to be so untrue. 

We could replace a striker, a centre half.... a Hazard we can't!

I think the effect of this sale will hurt the team for some years.

Best of luck to him in Madrid, I’ve had my issues with him over the years but he’s one of our greatest of all-time for us for sure. He was fantastic last night, MOTM performance.

All the best and good luck to Eden Hazard. Great servant, rarely injured, never throwing ridiculous tantrums, no stupid over-the-top party crap, always humble, carried the team when the chips are down, good professional, never did stupid sh*t to get transfers despite the obvious qualities he has and finally, a serial winner with Chelsea Football Club!!

I hope he wins the Champions League next season if we don't win it first!

3 minutes ago, Mod Stark said:

To us fans, the price makes absolutely zero difference. Especially with a billionaire owner

I disagree. The club has been much more frugal the last five years. Generally using players sales to offset buys. 

The Kepa situation is the only net negative we've had in the last five or so years. 

Chelsea has shown they will absolutely put the money from sales back into acquisitions, so a good price should mean that much more to invest back into the club. 

Two things that aren't as positive about this development though. 

1. Transfer ban. Wouldn't it be nice we were spending Hazard and Morata money on Jovic and Pepe this window? 

2. Recruitment. Scares me that they spend Hazard/Morata money on players that aren't good enough. 

1 minute ago, Skinnedy said:

I disagree. The club has been much more frugal the last five years. Generally using players sales to offset buys. 

Chelsea has shown they will absolutely put the money from sales back into acquisitions, so a good price should mean that much more to invest back into the club. 

But you're assuming we spend the money wisely.

9 minutes ago, Mod Stark said:

This is definitely not a knock against you JM, but generally, I always find it a bit odd that fans are happy or concerned with player sale prices.

To us fans, the price makes absolutely zero difference. Especially with a billionaire owner.

Hazard is most definitely a fan favourite, long term player, among the best in the world that wore a Chelsea shirt for so long. He's carried us and been the centre of the team the whole time - no price can be any consolation for us fans.

Hazard puts the phrase 'one player doesn't make a team' statement to be so untrue. 

We could replace a striker, a centre half.... a Hazard we can't!

I think the effect of this sale will hurt the team for some years.

No doubt he's irreplaceable.  What he brings to us there's only a few others at most in world football that could match it, but if he's going to leave we may as well get the most we can out of him to help us rebuild.  Life without Hazzy is going to be tough in the short term, but that 110m can help us in the long term.  Obviously 100% of proper Chelsea fans would rather he stay though.

7 minutes ago, coco said:

But you're assuming we spend the money wisely.

That was counter point #2

But hoping would be a better word. 

Last year was much better. Of the three players that came in, Kepa, Kovacic and Jorginho, all were solid contributors. 

But I'd rather have it and hope that it's spent well, than have it and not spend it (arsenal, Spurs, Newcastle etc...) 

5 minutes ago, Michael said:

No doubt he's irreplaceable.  What he brings to us there's only a few others at most in world football that could match it, but if he's going to leave we may as well get the most we can out of him to help us rebuild.  Life without Hazzy is going to be tough in the short term, but that 110m can help us in the long term.  Obviously 100% of proper Chelsea fans would rather he stay though.

Ideally we'd like to build around him. 

But I do believe this is a better team

Hudson-Odoi/Pepe - Jovic - Pulisic/Pepe

Than 

Hazard - Giroud - CHO/Pulisic 

Unfortunalty... Transfer ban... Short term is gonna hurt... 

Like Willian/Giroud/Pulisic hurt... 

But we should have a massive war chest to rebuild when the window opens for us again. 

Again, I stand by my point. Player sale prices make no difference at all to us fans, that money doesn’t end up in our bank accounts.

What the club chose to do with sales is down to them.

What matters to us is how our team perform and for that, Hazard is pretty priceless.

This isn’t Fifa manager mode. I’d rather have Hazard than an extra centimetre added on the end of dodgy match day hot dogs.

Hazard top 5 goals for Chelsea 

He has scored so many wonderful goals, that there are goals not included which I would have there. His once against Stoke in 2013, when we thumped them 4-0 at the Britannia was world class. That was his weaker foot and from around 30 yards out. Would arguably have that up there. That Newcastle one was my favourite though, in which he got his hattrick. The second goal to be precise, when he played that one-two with Eto'o is my favourite goal. Will never get bored of watching that.

1 minute ago, Mod Stark said:

Again, I stand by my point. Player sale prices make no difference at all to us fans, that money doesn’t end up in our bank accounts

Matters to me and I'm a fan. 

If we didn't get hosed so bad by Courtois, maybe we have another €40M to strengthen another position last year. 

Getting €100M for Hazard instead of €60M could make a massive difference to player recruitment. 

I'd rather not lose Hazard, but if he wants to go, and we're able to get €100M for a 30 year old with one year left on his contract, I'll consider that about the best we could hope for, and know that money will go back into the team. 

That reassures me as a fan... 

Rather than be Arsenal and know that money is going to Stan Kroenke. That behavior makes it tough to support a team. 

29 minutes ago, Mod Stark said:

This is definitely not a knock against you JM, but generally, I always find it a bit odd that fans are happy or concerned with player sale prices.

To us fans, the price makes absolutely zero difference. Especially with a billionaire owner.

Hazard is most definitely a fan favourite, long term player, among the best in the world that wore a Chelsea shirt for so long. He's carried us and been the centre of the team the whole time - no price can be any consolation for us fans.

Hazard puts the phrase 'one player doesn't make a team' statement to be so untrue. 

We could replace a striker, a centre half.... a Hazard we can't!

I think the effect of this sale will hurt the team for some years.

The only thing important about a transfer is to get as much money as possible to keep F F P restraints positive 

9 minutes ago, Mod Stark said:

Again, I stand by my point. Player sale prices make no difference at all to us fans, that money doesn’t end up in our bank accounts.

What the club chose to do with sales is down to them.

What matters to us is how our team perform and for that, Hazard is pretty priceless.

This isn’t Fifa manager mode. I’d rather have Hazard than an extra centimetre added on the end of dodgy match day hot dogs.

It absolutely makes a difference to us fans.  Sure Hazard could be described as priceless because of the value he has to our team, but that doesn't mean it isn't better to get 110m for him rather than 80m (or whatever the quoted prices are).

Opportunity cost is a real thing.  If we sell players for cheaper than the market value, or buy them for much more, it directly affects our transfer budget/plans and the product that we put on the field.  Especially with a club like Chelsea, where integrating youth has not been part of the plans.

Thought I'd prepared and readied myself over the past few months for him leaving... Yesterday was great but bitter sweet, pretty much hit it home that he's gonna be off.

Thanks for everything Eden, and as much as it hurts to say it, good luck at Real.

Edited May 30, 20197 yr by DannyBoy

2 minutes ago, mwblue10 said:

It absolutely makes a difference to us fans

I wonder if part of the discussion is the term "happy" 

I was happy to get £60M for Oscar 

I was happy to get £40M for Matic 

I'll be happy to get a bag of balls for Willian 

I was freakin giddy to get £60M for Costa 

I'm over the moon it looks like we'll get £55M for Morata 

I'm not happy we'll get €100M for Hazard. I'm resigned to the fact that he has one year left on his contract and wants to leave.

This sale won't hurt us nearly as badly as losing him for nothing next year would hurt us. Again, look at Arsenal for how NOT to handle losing players. They're the equivalent of letting Hazard and Kante walk for nothing and resigning Willian to £400k per week. 

No price for Hazard will make me happy. 

 

He's leaving and I feel sick at the thought.

10 minutes ago, Skinnedy said:

I wonder if part of the discussion is the term "happy" 

I was happy to get £60M for Oscar 

I was happy to get £40M for Matic 

I'll be happy to get a bag of balls for Willian 

I was freakin giddy to get £60M for Costa 

I'm over the moon it looks like we'll get £55M for Morata 

I'm not happy we'll get €100M for Hazard. I'm resigned to the fact that he has one year left on his contract and wants to leave.

This sale won't hurt us nearly as badly as losing him for nothing next year would hurt us. Again, look at Arsenal for how NOT to handle losing players. They're the equivalent of letting Hazard and Kante walk for nothing and resigning Willian to £400k per week. 

No price for Hazard will make me happy. 

 

Didn't Arsenal get a boat-load of money from ManU for Alexis Sanchez?

Just now, Phillip said:

Didn't Arsenal get a boat-load of money from ManU for Alexis Sanchez?

No. Not directly. They got Mkhitaryian (sp?) 

They turned down 60M (at least) the summer prior, Sanchez pouted for the first half of the season and was a detriment to the team. 

Arsenal did well by at least getting a player back, but Sanchez hurt the team while he was there and cost them in the neighborhood of £40M in 6 months. 

1 hour ago, Mod Stark said:

Again, I stand by my point. Player sale prices make no difference at all to us fans, that money doesn’t end up in our bank accounts.

Of course it doesn't go into our bank accounts, but it goes into the club we support.  We've already established how important Hazard is, but he wants to leave and there's not much we can do other than forcing him to stay where he probably won't play at his full potential and we end up losing him on a free.  If there was a chance he signs for 3 more years then every Chelsea fan would take that over even 200m, but that's not happening so the best we can do is get the absolute maximum out of Madrid so we can build for the future.

4 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

I'm not crying, you are. 

With the realisation sinking in that I have probably seen Hazard's final performance in a Chelsea shirt, must admit the eyes are moistening up somewhat and that shouldn't happen to a guy in his 50's!

I can't think of the last time I was this gutted that a player is leaving. In recent years my "favourites" who have moved on have all been because we decided to sell due to age or their decline or the time was right:

Eidur, Lamps, JT, Zola, Joey Cole..................................McEachran!!! 

I think the last time we sold a player and I was really gutted and it ruined my summer would have been Pat Nevin after relegation in 88.

Football eh? The highs and lows.

   

4 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

I'm not crying, you are. 

Still Gutted!!

Edited May 30, 20197 yr by Nibs