Manchester United, Manchester City or Chelsea? The Belgian better make his mind up soon…
The Eden Hazard transfer saga continues and it is now believed that he has agreed terms with both Manchester clubs, and Chelsea.
He is still to make his mind up which of the three he will actually put pen to paper with though.
It has been a bizarre and elongated affair, in what will probably be a transfer window which will eclipse most previous ones with the amount of money which clubs will be looking to splash out on players.
There is no doubt that Hazard is one of the most sought after players this time around, and this is confirmed with the stature of clubs that his name has been linked with.
The way Hazard and his representatives have gone about the negotiations has, to my mind illustrated how much sway each player has.
Here is an admittedly very talented 21-year-old, with some, but not a great deal of big game experience playing the three biggest clubs in Britain like a pretty girl would string along a bunch of admirers chasing a date.
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His reported wage demands of £200k a week is an astronomical amount of money, and would put him amongst the highest earners in the league.
A £32 million price tag to go along with the wages and its no wonder that Hazard believes he has the footballing world at his feet.
The posturing and teasing of his suitors must surely be of a great annoyance to them, as two of the sides will be missing out and will have £32 million to burn.
Due to his non committal, it is possible that other targets which could have been wrapped up earlier in the window could be missed out on.
Hazard himself, after saying that he would announce his destination after Lille’s last game of the season has now proclaimed the announcement will be made after Belgium’s friendly match against England.
If City, United and Chelsea are all prepared to wait this long for a decision, they must all feel that he is a very special player. Could he be the global superstar that City have been craving since the ill fated Robinho sojourn?
Or does Sir Alex believe that this is the player to finally fill the number 7 shirt and do the job Ronaldo used to do, which in turn would give Rooney the freedom to do what he does best?
Most believed the days of United spending that sort of money on players was long gone, and if they do have £32 million to spend, then it would be across a number of players, rather than one star.
United, more so than the other two need to add to their squad with 3 or 4 quality players, rather than one mega star who may, or may not be as good as the hype surrounding him.
Two consecutive young player of the league awards, followed up by two player of the year awards in the last four years in Ligue 1 indicate that he will be the real thing.
However players have come to the Premier League with reputations bigger than the young Belgian’s and been found out.
Hazard has the pedigree, and seems to have the confidence to come and take the Premier League by storm.
Where he ends up is still anyone’s guess, but come the new season he will be one of the most marked and watched men in the league.
It is doubtful he will have the same sort of success on the much bigger stage and while it will be a big transfer which has been played out to its fullest, there is the possibility of several more important deals in the footballing sense.
So while this looks like being one of the most lavish transfer windows we have seen, the team which takes a chance on Hazard will be hoping that all the courting of Eden will lead them to the promised land of Premier League glory.
Will Hazard live up to the hype?
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