Real still hoping to sign Hazard
Chelsea insiders have told me that new manager Mauricio Sarri is desperate to keep hold of Eden Hazard as Real Madrid step up their efforts to sign Belgian superstar. I understand that current captain Gary Cahill wants to support the club in every way he can and has agreed to hand over his club captaincy to the Belgian. Real are talking a massive £180million figure to take Eden to the Spanish capital. In a meeting a few days ago Sarri discussed the captaincy situation with his close advisors and suggested promoting Eden to captain. The response was an overwhelming yes! Eden is still only 27 year-old, lives near the Chelsea training ground in a very pleasant green part of Surrey. He has a very good life-style in England and appreciates it. But Real are determined and with their sort of money, they can always tempt a player. Now Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich and director Marina Granovskala have become involved and Roman’s billionaire fortune means that Chelsea can compete with Madrid and any offer they produce in the next week. Chelsea’s midfielder Cesc Fabregas is also currently pleading with Eden not to leave the Blues for La Liga. From Chelsea’s base in Australia Cesc said, “I won’t lie about it, I speak with him often about staying. He is the best player at the club and we really need to keep our best players at Chelsea to fight to regain the League title.” Hazard did not travel to Australia and will rejoin Chelsea on Monday, just one week before their opening Premier League game against Huddersfield. Manager Maurico Sarri has not called Eden yet because he feels that his English is not good enough to persuade the player to stay and instead the two will talk next week.
Sarri met with the directors and put together a plan plus they discussed their main transfer signing target, the Juventus centre-back Daniele Rugani. Chelsea’s first offer of £40million has been rejected by Juve. They want another £5million. Rugani’s agent David Torchia said that Juve don’t want to sell but “everything has a price.” Let us hope those words don’t come back to bite Chelsea where Eden Hazard is concerned.
All the warning signs are there to see at Manchester United. Manager Jose Mourinho usually doesn’t stick around at a club for more than two or three seasons and eventually ends up upsetting everyone when things start to fall apart - take Chelsea, in recent years, as a typical example. Jose now seems to be imploding at United! He looks and sounds miserable, his body language is all wrong and he is fighting battles to sign new players with Executive Vice-Chairman Ed Woodward. On United’s tour he told American fans not to waste money coming to see United because many big stars had not returned from World Cup holidays. This of course angered the International Champions Cup organisers. Mourinho’s whole demeanor cuts a figure of someone who is not comfortable. The self-styled Special One knows that Pep Guardiola blew him away last season and does not want that to happen again this season. His reputation would be severely damaged. Mourinho is turning on everyone - even the US officials who he called “Baseball referees!” when matches don’t go according to plan. This is a traditionally good time for youngsters taken on tour to impress managers but Mourinho is ignoring them and giving little encouragement. Even a 2-1 tour win over real Madrid did little to cheer him up. One wonders how long he will remain in the Old Trafford hot seat if the season Newcastle have warned Tottenham that their opening game of the season will not be an easy one. In a pre-season friendly, Newcastle played a 0-0 draw with top Portugese side Porto. Their Senagalese midfielder Mohamed Diame said the team was set up by manager Rafa Benitez in a special defensive strategy because Porto play like Spurs and it was a good preparation for their first Premier League game. Spurs previous Golden Boot winner Harry Kane - he was beaten by 2 goals by Liverpool’s Mo Salah in the last campaign has famously not scored in any August matches since joining the north London side and Diame said Newcastle have a plan to keep him quiet.
Arsenal boss Unai Emery has ordered his team to play with “style and personality.” In a massive first game of the season the Gunners face Premier League champions Manchester City. To prepare for that Emery took his players to Singapore where they thrashed Paris St-Germain 5-1. In his mind, I am reliably told, is the match against City and he wants his men to play without fear, with belief and commitment. He knows that club owner Stan Kronke and the Arsenal faithful, expect better things from their team this season and a return to former glories which will see them challenging for the title and a Champion’s League place. He said this week, “We want every player to create things, when they’re on the ball. When we are off the ball, we want to show determination to recover it quickly. We will press teams hard and we want to focus on that, not only in every Premier League match but also in every training session. We know we can start the season with a good performance against a big team like City.” Emery is delighted with the successful pre-season tour of Singapore and he has been particularly impressed with young French midfielder Matteo Guendouzi. He has definitely caught the manager’s eye.
Chelsea midfielder Cesc Fabregas has been speaking this week about adopting a new strategy of play under new manager Maurizio Sarri. Sarri intends to return to a four man defence playing up through the middle rather like Manchester City. Cesc said, “The manager is bringing in a different formation and we just need to grow into it. We need to learn. We have been two years with Antonio Conte working a system with 5-4-1 and 3-5-2 depending on our opponents. It is very different to play with five or three at the back than with four. We need time to re- adapt to what the boss wants from us but I believe we are intelligent players and players at the top level will try to adapt as soon as possible.”
When I spoke with Wayne Rooney’s American team yesterday I was told they are pleased with their ex-England, ex-Man Utd and Everton signing. Rooney scored his first American MLS goal this week but finished the game with blood pouring from a head wound which required five stitches and he also sustained a broken nose! DC coach Ben Olson said, “You can see what this opportunity to play for us means to Wayne. He is in the box, putting his face on the line and understanding that this is a big moment for both him and the team.”