Eden Hazard

kietotheworld

For how long do you think Ferguson will be United manager?

Ronnie O'Sullivan

He's drawing £170,000 per week at chelsea

kouroux

SAF would have played him in central midfield.Probably why he was afraid of joining United don't bite

Ekeke

More like sat him on the bench so he could watch Scholes and Giggs in midfield and be their backup.

ricky-romeo

only god knows.

kietotheworld

Much like every Chelsea manager's tenure then.

Mad Winger

Wow, I know that Abramovich is a mighty fella, but don't you think calling him "God" is taking it a little to far?

ghaliboy

The club is perfect for him. He's an egotistical twat and its hard to believe that he wouldn't have gone to Chelsea for the money.

How much of the team-sheet was controlled by RdM is anyones guess. I wouldn't be surprised if he was walking around demanding to be played all the time. The club is that much of a circus. This is more of the 'we are CFC and we'll do whatever the fuck we want. Why? Cause we can, so fuck off' mentality that has been at the club for the last few seasons.

Could you imagine Welbeck or Young or even Jones/Smalling being a twat and demanding to play all the time? Because their fee's/wages are small and they aren't egotistical twats they know their place in the squad. There is no bargaining chip to make them 'have' to be selected.

It's that aspect of the money teams that disgusts me. Players thinking (thinking) they are bigger than the game and the whole thing is about them being on show for 90 minutes and 'oh well, pfft im on 200k so I don't really give a fuck if we lose. Its gutting but i'll just buy an island and chill out till the new season starts if we're trophyless'. The game is becoming like that. Moving away from 18 blokes doing it for 90 minutes 50 games a season giving every ounce they have on the altar of the club. To just a bunch of overpayed twats prancing about on a football pitch playing 'look at me look at me' games.

kouroux

Would Hazard have played as many as he has had for Chelsea if he signed for United ? I don't think so, Hazard is arrogant make no mistake, asked for top money and to be a dead certain starter for Chelsea (something that would never have happened at United)

ricky-romeo

Ekeke

you dont honestly believe Hazard couldnt start games instead of an out of form nani, young and valencia do you?

kietotheworld

Where on earth have you got this from? You start with the premise that you wouldn't be surprised if he was demanding to play all the time, then you convince yourself that it's true and it proves what a joke Chelsea as a club are. It's ridiculous.

Chelsea paid Hazard a lot of money because he's a very good young player and they need to pay above average fees because of their status as a non top tier club. He plays a lot of games because he's a really good footballer and he's in their first XI on merit. He can't "demand" to play because he has a long term contract with Chelsea which prevents him from leaving for other clubs and his wages aren't a bargaining chip at all, that chip was already played, by Chelsea, when they agreed a contract with him. His bargaining chip is his service as a football player, and he's already committed that to be at Chelsea's disposal in exchange for the wages. If Chelsea drop him there's nothing he can do about it other than wait to be selected again, and if he kicks up a fuss Chelsea can withold his wages.

How can he demand that? Do you think it would be written into his contract? Is Benitez told that he has to pick Hazard or he will be sacked? What happens if he gets dropped?

Brosstan

He would be played as a winger for us, no doubt about that. And he would get some time considering the shitness of our wide options lately.

He made the right career move going to Chelsea regardless of that. Hes an attacking midfielder, thats where he should be played and thats how hes playing at Chelsea. Its a waste of some of his talent to play him out wide in a SAF 4-4-2.

Godfather

Well have a close look at our squad and who's out of form or injured. He would have started pretty much every game I reckon.

kouroux

Hazard said it himself that aside from money (well he didn't mention money obviously), playing time is a huge deal to him.He said he'd go for a club that would give him the best combo of most minutes/most money.
It's not something I invented, he said it several times on french TV and it's been widely repeated on radio shows.

In hindsight I agree with you but Hazard made his decision in the summer.He looked where he'd get more money and where he'd be a guarantee to start every single match virtually.
At Chelsea he has more chances of playing week in week out than at United where SAF is a big fan of the rotation system

It wouldn't suprise if there is a clause about appareances or min/matches in his contract when he signed for them.He wouldn't exactly be the first one to do that.That and what he said himself about the playing time before his signing for Chelsea was official.
Benitez is another of Roman's bitches, all he can do is say "Yes Mr Roman"

Adam-Utd

Not to forget he made Chelsea sign his brother too, was all part of the deal.

kietotheworld

He'll get more minutes there because there's less competition there in his position. The idea of a formal guarantee, even if he's playing like shit, it just strikes me as madness. I don't know why any club would subject themselves to that - any player good enough to warrant making a concession like that to would surely be able to make a spot in the team his own on merit.

kouroux

That's why he could never come to United.I don't think SAF would sign a player with that kinda demanding attitude before he's even played for the team.Man United is a lot more better run than Chelsea.
It does happen though and even if it's not written on the contract you can be sure that certain players when they sign for certain teams, they expect to play more often than not, whether they're performing or not.

kietotheworld

Don't most players who get huge amounts of money spent on them expect to play? I doubt van Persie came to United to sit on the bench, and if he did I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be very happy about it. There's nothing wrong with signing for a club in order to get playing time.

kouroux

It is wrong when you negotiate your playing time in your contract.It renders the notion of "earning your place" to nothing.Besides when a player says to the medias he'll go to the club where he'll play the most between United/City/Chelsea it's wrong IMHO.Hazard is more than good enough to earn his place at any club, why even worry about it ?

kietotheworld

Yeah, it's a horrible idea for all concerned, but I don't buy it at all. It's good to see a player who is concerned about the amount of playing time he can get, there are plenty of players who go chasing the money regardless. Maybe he wasn't that confident in his own ability?

ItsEssexRob

Some people might not want to join United, there are reasons other than money. To call it laughable not to join United is arrogance of the highest order.

They might want to live in London

They might prefer the style of another club.

They might prefer to be part of something different.

United is perfect for a LOT of players, but that doesn't mean it is for every single young player, its up to the player to decide and it may often, but not always be money. If you really want to join a club, I don't see why the extra money is any real lure against it ( Think RVP, he could have been earning more at City) you are going to be set for life whether you earn Chelseas wage or Uniteds wage at the end of the day.

Having said that I do feel a bit for him, he joined us as european champions and we have shown once more to be unpredictable in terms of managers. Im quite sure Rafas style will not be to his liking. In this sense he may have some regrets.

Striker10

If he joined Chelsea because they were European Champions, he was out of his mind....That was chelseas year. They aren't the best club in England let alone Europe.

alastair

Good post.

Varun_Utd

Whilst i totally agree with you that its ridiculously arrogant to label anyone who doesnt come to United a mercenary and label the decision ridiculous, Chelsea of all clubs is where the point is justified imo.

How can you be attracted to the style of a club that changes its manager and hence its style every season? Also, I doubt he joined you because you were the European Champions, everybody knew you werent the best team in Europe, not even close.

Am willing to trust him when he says he wanted guarantees about his playing time, that said, he should have been confident of cementing a place in our team considering his talent.

SAF said we werent willing to match the financial offer. I thing thats what swung it too with us not being willing to pay his agent 6mil.

Sparky_Hughes

I spent the first three weeks of the season wondering who the fuck this "azzar" the comentators kept mentioning was......you arent french and arent IN france.....its fucking hazzard.

kouroux

That's the way Belgians pronounce his name.

Cristiano_RAFC

Correct.

Sparky_Hughes

Im not in belgium either and neither are the fucking comentators.

Cristiano_RAFC

The player is belgian though. It makes more sense to pronounce it correctly rather than 'translate' it into something different. I never heard a belgian commentator pronounce 'scholes' the way it would be pronounced if they followed the gramatical rules of the dutch or french language. It would just sound weird. Why would it be different for english commentators?

peterstorey

Christ we've had little Englanders mangling foreign players' names for 50 years (Car-Zola the latest lazy effort). Now when someone does a decent job they get slated.

Gazza

You don't think he'd get a few games ahead of Young or Welbeck on the wing?

kouroux

I'm asking the question from his POV.Sorry if I ididn't make it clear

Crustanoid

I can see him making a good Defensive Forward when Rafa's masterplan kicks in

Claymore

Agree on this mate ^, always have. You can bet most of the commentators abroad pronounce our typical English names with their own twist but for some reason ours aren't allowed to in our country.

To me its Hazard, like the lights on a car, no way am I saying "AZ-har" with that horrible fake accent like that Robot Wars bloke Pearce does on MOTD. Corfola as well, nope, not happening. If I was a a football player and played in Europe I'd have no issue with them saying it there way either, no issue at all.

But then again on the other side of the coin our own coms have being calling Michael Owen, Owin for years. Anywone who's actually called Owen as a christian name must hate it.

peterstorey

Well you're just a dickhead like David Pleat then.

Skholesy

Eh? Regardless of what other countries commentators do, surely we should respect the origins of the player and try as best possible to pronounce it close to what it should be...

By your logic, our commentators should have been calling out Larry White (Blanc), Ferdinand Bull (Torres), Robert Left-Handed (Mancini), John Bush (Mata) and Christian Ronald (who else?).

Arruda

That's bullshit. I can guarantee in Portugal we do our best to pronounce the names correctly.

Even when watching youtube videos in languages I don't have a clue about, most of the times I can perfectly recognize player's names. There are some exceptions of course, but no way the general rule is what you say.

This thread emanates arrogance at every level, footballing-wise all the way down to linguistics.

I pronounce Hazard just like you, but that's because I saw the name written so many times before actually hearing it.

peterstorey

Whenever I hear foreign streams from French to Russian and beyond they tend to do a decent job on Scholes or Giggs.

Snow

Yup. If you know how to pronounce it correctly you should do it.

Before the Chelsea-Nordsjælland game I heard from Neville. He was practicing on pronouncing all the names in the Nordsjælland team, asking people around him if he did it correctly.
If you at least try, fair play.

We also had a female camera "man" who was from the Czech Republic. She taught our commentators how to pronounce Rosicky's name correctly.