Would it be hazardous for Chelsea to bring Eden Hazard home?

Like Chelsea, Real Madrid’s league season ended this past weekend. Unlike Chelsea, that’s all she wrote for Real Madrid in 2020/2021. They end the season trophyless with Zinedine Zidane again looking like he’s going to quit, half the team up for sale, and no Super League money to have other clubs pay their debts for them.

Among the players on the outs appears to be Eden Hazard. Despite being battered by Chelsea over two legs in pretty much every way, it was Hazard who carried the blame after he was caught laughing with players that he had been friends with for years. The gall! The scandal! The too long staring at the camera wringing of hands!

Make no mistake, Hazard’s had a rough two years in Madrid. Injuries and poor form when he could play haven’t done him any favors. Zidane, for his part, has tried to back the player as much as possible but Hazard simply can’t get ahead of his injuries or the relentless Spanish press looking for a scapegoat.

That’s where the latest rumor comes in. Eden Hazard wants out of Real Madrid, and he wants to come back to Chelsea. The question for Chelsea is whether that is a hazardous deal or not?

For what it’s worth, Real Madrid fans seem to be taking the rumor seriously. That or they are so desperate to save face and/or blame Hazard for their issues that they’ll believe anything. Regardless, that gives this rumor just enough smoke to be viable.

Obviously, however, Chelsea won’t want the Real Madrid version of Hazard. There may be an understanding that he won’t be the Chelsea version either, but the deal still has to be worth it. There are at least a few things in favor of that.

First of all, Hazard would hardly be the first player to move to a new league and club where things just don’t click. He’d be far from the first player to go to Real Madrid and find the culture there too much. Gareth Bale may not be Tottenham’s Bale of old, but he’s at least closer to that than the player that left Real Madrid a year ago.

Furthermore, Hazard is at an age where injuries start to creep in. He really only had one injury plagued season at Chelsea and his entire time at Real Madrid has been plagued. It could be something behind the scenes there that just isn’t working for him. Returning to Chelsea may be the solution to that issue over time.

But really, this is all a matter of price and what it means to the Chelsea squad. On the price, Real Madrid knows they aren’t getting anywhere close to what they paid for him back, especially if they have to deal with Marina Granovskaia. At the same time, they also seem pretty okay with just getting him out of the way by any means necessary. There have been prices reported as low as 30 million pounds, which, if true, has far more upsides than not for Chelsea.

Any deal for Hazard will basically be predicated on the chance that he returns to the form he once had. The Blues desperately need someone who can create and score and even if Hazard now is the equivalent to his worst season at Chelsea, it’s hard to argue he wouldn’t still be an improvement on the current crop. He’d also add that experience and guile that Chelsea lacks as the younger generation develops it.

Perhaps the biggest hinderance will be whether it blocks the pipeline or not. Does Callum Hudson-Odoi somehow play even less if Hazard arrives? What about Timo Werner, often lining up in Hazard like positions? And if Chelsea is dead set on a super star striker this summer, how much of a dent into that would Hazard make?

But if Hazard returns as even half the player he was, the low prices being touted around make it a no brainer. There is very much a limit to how much Chelsea should be willing to pay to take the gamble on Hazard, but there is a reality where it is possible. At worst, Chelsea will have paid a low fee for a decent if not great option with a finger on the club’s past. At best, he picks up where he left off and Chelsea soars to new heights as Real Madrid try to launch a Super Duper League to get others to pay their debts.