It's sad, at 32 he should be among the top 10 players in the world if not top 5, with Messi & Ronaldo moved on. Instead, he basically set on the bench for the last 2-3 seasons and had to retire. In hindsight, should have stayed at Chelsea , winning trophies and breaking all the records. There are a lot of great attackers out there, but few with the unique dribbling ability of Hazard, and able to win games completely by himself.

 

 

Generational level talent 

 

 

IMO Hazard should be in the conversation as the best player in Chelsea or PL modern history. 

The only two player that I can think of that is comparable is henry and cr7. 

 

In terms of ability to win games by himself, I think he's right up there with the best in the PL history. How many times has he been given the ball in ordinary position, and dribble past 3-4 to score, win a penalty, or setup an easy finishing for others? He could be playing for Norwich and still get in the team of the year.

It's funny when he joined I was not sure, he was played on the right wing and seemed a bit lightweight with a temper, I recall him almost throttling that annoying ball boy at a cup away match. He started under Di Matteo then Benitez .

The following season under Mourinho we started to see his potential as he became a left sided attacker  and never looked back.

The most talented player I have seen for us with only Zola being close. 

A real shame for him that he did not get a couple of good seasons at Madrid. 

 

 

 

It took a while to get used to him being gone, there was a point where it was so easy you just scream pass to Hazard and he'd do something. I think it will be a long time before we can get a player of his quality again.

Best player to ever wear the blue for me. 

I'm going to be a bit controversial here but f**k it, if I have one criticism of Hazard, I believe he could've been a lot better. I felt that he had the closest ability to Lionel Messi than any other footballer playing at the time, but sometimes he lacked that cutting edge to really take advantage of his ability. He could've easily scored as many goals as Mohammad Salah did, but sometimes he liked to just glide and be stuck in auto-pilot where I felt he could've done what he did vs West Ham a lot more times if he really wanted to. 

However, it's worth stating that nobody was fouled more than he was, no wonder the poor bugger had a short career. I know he wasn't the hardest worker in training and didn't look after himself the best, but he was always getting fouled on the pitch. Sometimes I feel that he didn't get the best protection either, how the f**k Phil Bardsley never got a red card for that challenge on him I'll never know. Hazard even admitted that the tackle scared him in future games. 

Edited October 11, 20232 yr by Victor90

1 hour ago, strider6004 said:

It's funny when he joined I was not sure, he was played on the right wing and seemed a bit lightweight with a temper, I recall him almost throttling that annoying ball boy at a cup away match. He started under Di Matteo then Benitez .

The following season under Mourinho we started to see his potential as he became a left sided attacker  and never looked back.

The most talented player I have seen for us with only Zola being close. 

A real shame for him that he did not get a couple of good seasons at Madrid. 

 

 

 

Hazard did absolutely nothing wrong in that ball boy situation, Swansea should've been penalised for that as the "boy" who was the oldest ball boy in history was the son of one of the directors and was on social media bragging about how he was going to get a Chelsea player sent off. 

As usual, our club made no noise about it, had it have been Liverpool then Swansea would've been investigated and fined to oblivion. 

He deserves a place on the ShedEnd website header. The greatest player I've ever seen live. Other than Ronaldinho, the only player who gave me goosebumps when he touched the ball. I loved him from the very first moment until his last kick. We have legends like Drogba and Lampard but Hazard just holds something extra special for me. I pray to God that I get to experience another Chelsea player like him in the near future. I can write a dissertation on how important this guy was to me. Absolute Chelsea legend no doubt. One of the best ever to grace the Prem and secretly our rival fans favourite player.

24 minutes ago, Victor90 said:

It took a while to get used to him being gone, there was a point where it was so easy you just scream pass to Hazard and he'd do something. I think it will be a long time before we can get a player of his quality again.

Best player to ever wear the blue for me. 

I'm going to be a bit controversial here but f**k it, if I have one criticism of Hazard, I believe he could've been a lot better. I felt that he had the closest ability to Lionel Messi than any other footballer playing at the time, but sometimes he lacked that cutting edge to really take advantage of his ability. He could've easily scored as many goals as Mohammad Salah did, but sometimes he liked to just glide and be stuck in auto-pilot where I felt he could've done what he did vs West Ham a lot more times if he really wanted to. 

However, it's worth stating that nobody was fouled more than he was, no wonder the poor bugger had a short career. I know he wasn't the hardest worker in training and didn't look after himself the best, but he was always getting fouled on the pitch. Sometimes I feel that he didn't get the best protection either, how the f**k Phil Bardsley never got a red card for that challenge on him I'll never know. Hazard even admitted that the tackle scared him in future games. 

He definitely had a higher level to go but I genuinely think we failed him. Imagine we signed another player of his quality on the right hand side? Our recruitment was poor in his prime years.

7 minutes ago, KonaKai Blue said:

He definitely had a higher level to go but I genuinely think we failed him. Imagine we signed another player of his quality on the right hand side? Our recruitment was poor in his prime years.

You mean like say Salah and KdB?

What could have been ;)

What could've been indeed. 

2 hours ago, strider6004 said:

It's funny when he joined I was not sure, he was played on the right wing and seemed a bit lightweight with a temper, I recall him almost throttling that annoying ball boy at a cup away match. He started under Di Matteo then Benitez .

The following season under Mourinho we started to see his potential as he became a left sided attacker  and never looked back.

The most talented player I have seen for us with only Zola being close. 

A real shame for him that he did not get a couple of good seasons at Madrid. 

 

 

 

I think you're misremembering him. He never had a temper, and he certainly never almost throttled that ball boy. He literally kicked the ball from under his belly and tried to get on with the football match.

45 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

I think you're misremembering him. He never had a temper, and he certainly never almost throttled that ball boy. He literally kicked the ball from under his belly and tried to get on with the football match.

We (members of this forum) got the FA to back down from extending his ban, which they planned to do. A fan from Oxford Utd posted details of a very similar incident, when the FA decided an apology was enough. I sent the link to Pat Nevin and Martin Samuel of the Daily Mail. He wrote a big feature about the FA treating clubs differently and the FA backed down. What was fantastic was that, in the game that would have been the extra one-match ban they didn't impose (Wigan at home) Eden scored. So really it was a goal made on The Shed End Forum. I wonder if Eden knows of our part in that goal?

Just dug up the correspondence with Martin Samuel. It was a poster called NoSeatingintheShedinmyday who contacted him, and she had this reply:

"I am sorry to trouble you at this late hour but there are time difference issues here as I am in Australia covering the tennis at the moment. Your observations and correspondence with the Football Association are very interesting and I would like to highlight this issue in my column to be published in the Daily Mail on Monday. Is there a number I can call you on to verify certain details and do you, by any chance, have a copy of the letter that was sent by Gary Stonehouse of the FA? It always helps to add a layer of authenticity. Obviously, I would be very discrete about the details of the source and your connection to the story would not be made public. (Unless you fancied doing a lap of honour at Stamford Bridge, of course, in which case I’ll make sure you get the credit.) Thank you once again for the information and I hope to hear from you soonest, time rather being of the essence here.

Kind regards, Martin Samuel

 

This the article he wrote which made the FA back down:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-2269299/Eden-Hazard-ball-boy-kick-charge-shows-FA-hypocrites--Martin-Samuel.html

 

And I finally found the thread:

 

I think now he’s retired, it's only right to move this thread back into the Chelsea Forums where it should stay!

What do you say @Munkunku being the ‘Move Topic’ Inspector?

 

22 minutes ago, Backbiter said:

And I finally found the thread:

 

Blimey, all the anger and effing and jeffing going on in that thread then! And people think we are full of anger around these parts now, I think we’ve gone soft!

 

3 hours ago, axman2526 said:

You mean like say Salah and KdB?

What could have been 😉

The biggest hindsight ever but if only we never re hired Jose Mourinho. I really believe KDB and Salah would still be Chelsea players. Really knocked us back that did despite the success.

7 minutes ago, KonaKai Blue said:

The biggest hindsight ever but if only we never re hired Jose Mourinho. I really believe KDB and Salah would still be Chelsea players. Really knocked us back that did despite the success.

KDB maybe but I highly doubt Salah will be the same player if he stayed with us. 

13 minutes ago, KonaKai Blue said:

The biggest hindsight ever but if only we never re hired Jose Mourinho. I really believe KDB and Salah would still be Chelsea players. Really knocked us back that did despite the success.

Yep, I've often though that - kinda thing that keeps me awake at nights.

As much as I loved Jose first time, that second stint cost us big time. Sure, we had the short-term success but at what a huge cost. It's like we're all just accepting of it now as one of those things (little else you can do) but you imagine how good we could have been with a nucleus of Hazard, KDB and Salah (with a couple of additions) and how much weaker City & Liverpool would have been. Makes you want to cry...........................

 

5 hours ago, Modueke said:

I think now he’s retired, it's only right to move this thread back into the Chelsea Forums where it should stay!

What do you say @Munkunku being the ‘Move Topic’ Inspector?

 

5 hours ago, Bob stark said:

KDB maybe but I highly doubt Salah will be the same player if he stayed with us. 

KDB not maybe. 100% certy. I knew he was a special talent also and said it was a massive mistake selling him at the time. It's painful knowing I was right. I have a very bitter place in my heart for Jose about that decision.