It appears that Chelsea will be holding onto Eden Hazard this summer transfer window after all. According to reports in Spain, Stamford Bridge have won their transfer window stand-off with Real Madrid over the Belgian forward.
A new report in AS claims that Madrid are cooling their interest in the 27-year-old, and will now move on to Paris Saint-Germain scoring sensation Edinson Cavani as their next main target in the quest to try and replace Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Daily Post Nigeria writes that Eden hazard “has been a long-standing target for Real Madrid with the club’s president, Florentino Perez supposedly “obsessed” with fruitless efforts of trying to snatch the Belgian international from Chelsea.”
Indeed the Hazard to Madrid transfer narrative is one that we see en masse seemingly every summer, and of course it never materializes. It’s somewhat similar to another narrative involving Madrid- Gareth Bale potentially leaving to join Manchester United, which of course we see every summer, even though it never actually happens.
It appears we can both the Hazard and Bale narratives to bed this summer transfer window, but of course we’ll see them yet again next summer, so be ready for that.
Madrid were reportedly priced out by Chelsea for Eden Hazard, as the Daily Mirror writes of the Blues demanding “a staggering £178m – which would make Hazard the second most expensive player of all time.”
While Eden Hazard is certainly top tier elite among footballers, it’s still an astronomically high price to pay for a player who will be turning 30 in two and a half years.
In order to further cement Hazard’s retention, the Daily Express‘ Tony Banks writes that manager Maurizio Sarri is set to hand the Belgian the Blues’ captaincy this season. If all of that is still not enough to put the kibosh on a potential sale to Real Madrid, the Daily Mail claims Chelsea want to jack up the price even more, to £200 million, a figure that the history of transfer sales has never seen before.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, is currently a regular contributor to SB Nation, WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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