Thibaut and Thorgan: Chelsea should build a future around Eden Hazard
By George Perry
Eden Hazard’s contract is the most important piece of business pending in Chelsea’s front office. The club should have no qualms about signing brothers and Belgians to keep Hazard at Stamford Bridge until he is ready for retirement (or Major League Soccer, PTR).
Chelsea and Real Madrid can offer Eden Hazard much the same package of tangible benefits. Neither club will balk at his wages. Both clubs offer similar prospects for perennial league titles and Champions League runs. The most appealing argument Real Madrid could make over Chelsea is the preference of Ballon d’Or voters for players at Spanish clubs. However, Hazard himself believes he could realize his ultimate individual ambition at Stamford Bridge.
The decision to leave west London for Madrid, then, could boil down to which club will make him feel most at home, most wanted. The Blues already have the incumbent advantage on this count. They should press that advantage until he signs, and then for the remainder of his career.
Beyond the warm fuzzy feeling of having three Hazard brothers in Blue, building a team around a generational star like Eden Hazard is good football management. By doing so, Chelsea would be taking a page out of Real Madrid’s playbook. Real has their reputation for hoarding galacticos, but many of those players are there in service to the uber-galactico, Cristiano Ronaldo. Real assembled a squad of some of the world’s greatest players to maximize the output and tenure of the world’s greatest player.
Chelsea would not need to go to Real’s level of excesses to deliver on the promise that they will build around Eden Hazard the way Real built around Ronaldo. Extending Thibaut Courtois and signing Thorgan Hazard are two easy, relatively inexpensive ways Chelsea can prove their good faith. Courtois and Eden Hazard already seem to link their futures and their friendship. Hazard is a family man, and the Blues already have Kylian Hazard at the club and a buy-back clause for Thorgan.
Family, friends and a fortune are a powerful combination. But the Blues still have more to offer.
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Chelsea, as part of their negotiations, should promise to weigh future transfers heavily in terms of what they mean for Hazard on the pitch. Will a new winger or a new striker complement or clash with Hazard’s style of play? Will the new signing mesh with Hazard’s ready-with-a-joke good humour on the training ground and tenacity on the pitch? Or will the Blues be setting up an Edinson Cavani vs. Neymar-style soap opera?
Signing Alexis Sanchez would be another early, pro-Eden Hazard sign of intent. Apart from the overall benefits Sanchez would bring to the team, Sanchez and Hazard have compatible playing styles and temperaments. The necessary depth-signing at left wing-back is the next that should be viewed through the lens of Hazard, given how instrumental Marcos Alonso was to Hazard’s success last season.
Eden Hazard could easily have another five prime playing years ahead of him. If he goes the Cristiano Ronaldo route of fitness maintenance and strategic career management, Hazard could be Hazard for over a decade more. Every other player will come and go in that time*, but Hazard should be the keystone of every Blues side. En route to breaking Frank Lampard’s goal record and taking his place alongside Peter Osgood and Didier Drogba as the greatest in club history, Hazard will add any number of trophies to his and the club’s case. He will also imbue Stamford Bridge with his character and legacy.
Quite a return on investment for a process that starts with signing one of the world’s top goalkeepers and a younger brother.
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*Cesar Azpilicueta will also stay for the remainder of his career, and then immediately transition into a coaching, scout or Academy role, because who wants to imagine a Chelsea without Azpilicueta?