Eden Hazard | Real Madrid Confirm the signing

[cyberman]

Hazard has been by far their best player for them for the best part of the last decade, though. He's basically irreplaceable, I'm not sure how getting a good fee for him means it's a good deal. Ask any Chelsea fan and I'm sure they'd have preferred him staying vs 100m that they can't even spend.

Roman has been accused of cutting back his spending. A lower fee could mean the Dortmund winger would be the only big name signing but this allows an additional name to come in alongside him be it this summer or next.
I honestly think Hazard slows down play too much and is why every top striker they have had struggles to score goals. Even Costa went through massive droughts for them at times. He plays for far too many fouls instead of getting the ball away quickly. Sort of like Pogba

 

[blue blue]

Hazard has been by far their best player for them for the best part of the last decade, though. He's basically irreplaceable, I'm not sure how getting a good fee for him means it's a good deal. Ask any Chelsea fan and I'm sure they'd have preferred him staying vs 100m that they can't even spend.

Yes I would rather he didn't leave because he's irreplaceable. It's an OK deal financially and I think they weren't too fussed about the funds coming in immediately because of the ban. They may have agreed slightly higher "add-ons" because they could be paid at a latter date.

I don't think Hazard has been by far our best player. Kante at least ran him a close second. The man is like two players.

 

[Jagga7]

Chelsea relied so heavily on Hazard. They will struggle badly without him next season.

 

[el3mel]

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Done deal.

 

[el3mel]

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[el3mel]

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[klayton88]

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Ramos already hates him.

 

[BrianMcClair'sBarnet]

Fond farewell,Chelsea.Who says 'fond goodbye'.

 

[USREDEVIL]

Ramos already hates him.

Hazard already overshadowing him..hasn't even played a game!

 

[USREDEVIL]

Fond farewell,Chelsea.Who says 'fond goodbye'.

Going right at their jugular eh Brian! Only joking

 

[RoyH1]

Is it confirmed he’s wearing the 7? Or is it just overeager RM shop attendants

 

[carvajal]

Is it confirmed he’s wearing the 7? Or is it just overeager RM shop attendants

Not confirmed yet.

 

[No Idea For Nickname]

Not confirmed yet.

I read few days ago, that they want to take number 7 from some other guy, think name begins with "M", not sure it was Real Madrid and Hazard could be wrong.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

I read few days ago, that they want to take number 7 from some other guy, think name begins with "M", not sure it was Real Madrid and Hazard could be wrong.

Mariano has the #7.

I imagine Hazard will get it.

Modric has the number 10.

 

[SharpshooterTom]

Ronaldo is very rare.

Unless you beileve taht Ronaldo is the average template for how footballer age.

Not really.

Messi is 32 still scoring 50 goals a season.

Vardy at 32 is still a PL golden boot contender.

Aguero is 31.

Modric is 33.

Pique and Ramos are 32 and 33 respectively.

Have a look at Federer, Nadal and Djokovic in mens tennis.

Sportstars live far longer these days, early 30s is absolutely nothing.

 

[Peyroteo]

Not really.

Messi is 32 still scoring 50 goals a season.

Vardy at 32 is still a PL golden boot contender.

Aguero is 31.

Modric is 33.

Pique and Ramos are 32 and 33 respectively.

Have a look at Federer, Nadal and Djokovic in mens tennis.

Sportstars live far longer these days, early 30s is absolutely nothing.

Far longer than when? There were always multiple top players in their 30s for as far back as I can think...

For every one of those players you name I can tell you 100 that stopped playing at the top in their early thirties. It's such a bad argument to make that sort of claim and then justifying it by naming the exceptions.

Messi is 31, Aguero is 31, James Vardy isn't a top player, Pique and Ramos are centrebacks... Modric is the one name there that is really something special longevity wise and that might be because he started playing at the top level fairly late in his career for a player of his quality since he only left Croatia when he was 23.

Hazard is 28, gets fouled a lot and his mobility is a big part of his game. Him declining in the next 3 or 4 years should be a big concern even if it might not happen.

 

[SharpshooterTom]

Far longer than when? There were always multiple top players in their 30s for as far back as I can think...

For every one of those players you name I can tell you 100 that stopped playing at the top in their early thirties. It's such a bad argument to make that sort of claim and then justifying it by naming the exceptions.

There are plenty of players who have declined, Ronaldo is certainly better than most but he his not the exception to the rule.

He finished with 28 goals for Juve this year, Messi finished with 51, numbers which Ronaldo was getting himself until recently.

Decline is relative to the persons peak ability. When Ronaldo and Messi have their goals halved, they're still scoring 25 a season, when Vardy declines (which hasn't happened yet) he'll be lucky to hit double figures.

Ronaldo's overall game outside of scoring goals has almost certainly declined.

 

[Acheron]

 

[tomaldinho1]

Pulisic has some impossible shoes to fill

 

[Dante]

Not really.

Messi is 32 still scoring 50 goals a season.

Vardy at 32 is still a PL golden boot contender.

Aguero is 31.

Modric is 33.

Pique and Ramos are 32 and 33 respectively.

Have a look at Federer, Nadal and Djokovic in mens tennis.

Sportstars live far longer these days, early 30s is absolutely nothing.

You can't pull exceptions out of the air and then claim they're the norm.

Super-longevity is much rarer than decline after 11 seasons.

If you can show that those players' carreers consitute the majoirty template for how footballers age, then you could claim that Hazard is likely to follow suit. If not, it's just wishful thinking.

You'd might as well claim that you're going to win the lottery because you can name at least 5 other people who have done it before you.

 

[Peyroteo]

There are plenty of players who have declined, Ronaldo is certainly better than most but he his not the exception to the rule.

He finished with 28 goals for Juve this year, Messi finished with 51, numbers which Ronaldo was getting himself until recently.

He was every bit as good this season scoring 28 as he was last season when he scored 44...

Things weren't exactly similar to the past few seasons, don't know if you noticed but a few things changed

Decline is relative to the persons peak ability. When Ronaldo and Messi have their goals halved, they're still scoring 25 a season, when Vardy declines (which hasn't happened yet) he'll be lucky to hit double figures.

Ronaldo's overall game outside of scoring goals has almost certainly declined.

That's not how declining works. When Ronaldinho declined he was worse than when plenty of worse players declined... players don't decline linearly from their peak.

You might geniunely be the one person on the planet that doesn't think Ronaldo's or anyone's longevity in the present is impressive. Your justification for it makes no sense at all.

 

[BenitoSTARR]

Madrid buying Hazard, Jovic etc and we’ve bought James...

 

[ash_86]

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[Cliche Guevara]

Hazard is 28, gets fouled a lot and his mobility is a big part of his game. Him declining in the next 3 or 4 years should be a big concern even if it might not happen.

Notwithstanding the rest of your post, I could see him doing an Alexi Sanchez in a couple of years.

 

[WR10]

Hazard hasn’t even hit his peak. The next 3 years will be him at his absolute devastating peak.

 

[UnofficialDevil]

Madrid buying Hazard, Jovic etc and we’ve bought James...

The United way

 

[Patrick08]

Madrid buying Hazard, Jovic etc and we’ve bought James...

They sold morata for 70 m too.

 

[VeevaVee]

Be very interesting to see how he fares next season, and how Chelsea do too.

 

[duffer]

Pulisic has some impossible shoes to fill

Callum Hudson-Odoi is getting the 10 shirt. No pressure!

 

[Bastian]

Looking forward to enjoying his performances instead of hoping he's kept quiet. Think he'll be the next Ballon d'Or winner.

 

[Cloud7]

Why didn't Real Madrid wait one more year? They could have saved £88 million or £130 million. No matter how rich they are, that's still a lot of money. Hazard has flirted with Real for so long and its a no brainer he would move to Real after his contract ends.

Because a year is a long time in football. They want to improve now and so they did what needed to be done.

 

[wr8_utd]

Looking forward to enjoying his performances instead of hoping he's kept quiet. Think he'll be the next Ballon d'Or winner.

Unless he leads Madrid to the CL, I don't see him winning it. Messi is still comfortably better than him in pretty much all aspects of the game.

 

[minh_loc_xoay]

Why didn't Real Madrid wait one more year? They could have saved £88 million or £130 million. No matter how rich they are, that's still a lot of money. Hazard has flirted with Real for so long and its a no brainer he would move to Real after his contract ends.

This inferior way of thinking is why Manchester United keeps missing top players (And top managers). I bet people wanted to wait one more year to sign Harry Kane, Mbappe, Sancho...etc too.

 

[El Jefe]

I can't believe what I'm reading here. People worried about Hazard's age?

Messi, Ronaldo, Ribery, Robben, Aguero, David Silva, Suarez, Yaya Toure, Zlatan, Van Persie, Drogba and so many more attacking players peaked after the age of 28 and the majority of this list continued that form until 32.

 

[Keeps It tidy]

I can't believe what I'm reading here. People worried about Hazard's age?

Messi, Ronaldo, Ribery, Robben, Aguero, David Silva, Suarez, Yaya Toure, Zlatan, Van Persie, Drogba and so many more attacking players peaked after the age of 28 and the majority of this list continued that form until 32.

Even from your list Van Persie was basically finished at top level Football by 31. Suarez is only 32 and Barca fans have wanted him replaced for the last 2 years. Plus their is Sanchez and Matic we already have look to replace. and they are only 30. Hummels and Boateng are only 30 and Bayern have spent 115 million to have them replaced. So it varies.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Signed for less than Coutinho. Only a year left on his contract but that's good business. Jovic and Hazard in addition to the two young Brazilians and a highly rated young CB. Strong start to their rebuild if these players are as good as made out to be.

 

[SharpshooterTom]

He was every bit as good this season scoring 28 as he was last season when he scored 44...

Things weren't exactly similar to the past few seasons, don't know if you noticed but a few things changed

Well I thought it was due him playing less games as it turns out its not (44 vs 43), so its obviously accurate to say his goals ratio per game has gone down.

Now admittedly some would say the fact that Juventus average between 70-80 league goals a season rather than the 100 odd Real Madrid might be a big part of that, and that's probably true, although that's still nearly half of what Messi scored this season, which is a huge difference. Remember Messi is 32 himself.

He is still playing for the best side in Italy who dominate that division more than Real Madrid have ever done in Spain at his time there.

You might geniunely be the one person on the planet that doesn't think Ronaldo's or anyone's longevity in the present is impressive. Your justification for it makes no sense at all.

Simply because sportsman of this era, on average are living longer in their respective sports than they used. This is not rocket science, have a look at Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Serena Williams in tennis, which is a sport traditionally where being over 30 is a death sentence and all them are still extremely competitive if not dominating in that sport, when others previously never were. Tom Brady still the best quarterback at 42, which hitting 40 usually meant retirement. Tour de France winners more and more are in the 30s compared to previous era's where anybody over 30 in tour cycling was also near impossibility to win anything.

I'm not saying Ronaldo isn't partly responsible for his longevity, he clearly looks after himself and that obviously is helping him, nor will I ever question his incredible motivation and desire, but I do think he's benefiting from the era of much improved sports science however, I'm not sure he would be having the same longevity if he was a footballer in the 80s for example.

I think when we compare the longevity of footballers of his age group, you have to take into effect his level is/was so high to begin with that a moderate decline he is still going to be one of the top 10-15 players in the world, so he is still a great striker.

Given what I've seen in other sports, I'd be fascinated to see what happens with other big goal scorers like Messi, Aguero, Lewandowski who aren't to far behind him in terms of age, and we'll see how much of anomaly he is.

People used to salivate over Federer's longevity suggesting his rivals would never do what he did winning Grand Slams after 35+, but I always was skeptical of that as now seeing Nadal and Djokovic completely dominate that sport still at 32 and 33 confirms that having 3 tennis players dominate potentially well into their 30s plus Serena Williams in the womens game doing it is not a mere coincidence.

I personally don't think Ronaldo is potentially a stand alone miracle in this regard, Ibrahimovic admittedly is the only other world class striker who has Ronaldo like longevity (and I think Ibra went to the MLS too early IMO) but I do think some of his rivals behind him will be scoring plenty of goals for a while like he is.

That doesn't mean I don't find his longevity impressive, I do, but I think as I say its partly down to the era he is in that is certainly helping him.

 

[SharpshooterTom]

You can't pull exceptions out of the air and then claim they're the norm.

Super-longevity is much rarer than decline after 11 seasons.

If you can show that those players' carreers consitute the majoirty template for how footballers age, then you could claim that Hazard is likely to follow suit. If not, it's just wishful thinking.

You'd might as well claim that you're going to win the lottery because you can name at least 5 other people who have done it before you.

I do think the very very top sportsman of their respective sports are living a lot longer than they used to.

That isn't to say that you don't get sportsman who don't meet this criteria, Wayne Rooney is probably the best example of this. I'm not saying most footballers still don't typically decline after 30, its clear that most do, but more and more aren't like Ibra, Ronaldo, Messi, possibly some others like Aguero, Lewondowski, Modric etc, there appears to be a growing number of players playing top level football well into their 30s.

It doesn't mean Hazard is definitely going to though, I don't mean to imply that, but his chances are better than comparing to the standard blueprint of 80s/90s footballers who the vast majority of which never did. Hazard is playing in a era where there is a potential to be a ballon d'or contender well into his 30s.

 

[El Jefe]

Even from your list Van Persie was basically finished at top level Football by 31. Suarez is only 32 and Barca fans have wanted him replaced for the last 2 years. Plus their is Sanchez and Matic we already have look to replace. and they are only 30. Hummels and Boateng are only 30 and Bayern have spent 115 million to have them replaced. So it varies.

I said the majority and was specifically referring to attacking players. Of course not all players play well to the age of 32 but I think its ridiculous to suggest Hazard's age as a potential issue. His speed, agility and dribbling is still elite and other than his speed the rest of his game will always be at an elite level.

His best is yet to come IMO.

 

[Acole9]

Hazard had to move this summer otherwise the opportunity of signing for Real Madrid would've passed him by.