Hazard: I’m ready to talk on new deal
EDEN HAZARD has told Chelsea he is ready to re-open talks about a new contract. The Belgian has less than two years to run on his deal and called a halt to negotiations last season amid interest from Real Madrid. After the World Cup he said it might be time to leave London for a new challenge, but a new lease of life under manager Maurizio Sarri is changing his mind. ‘If they come to me, then I will talk,’ said Hazard, in a refreshingly open and honest interview after scoring his eighth goal of the season in a 3-0 win at Southampton on Sunday. ‘I could talk now.’ The 27-year-old forward is in sparkling form and his readiness to discuss a future at Stamford Bridge is great for Chelsea, although he warned no final decision had been reached. Hazard explained: ‘I don’t want to say I’m signing a new contract and then I don’t end up signing. So I will see. Sometimes I wake up
in the morning and think I want to go. Sometimes I want to stay.
‘ It is a hard decision. It is my future. I am 27 and I will turn 28 in January.
‘That’s why I spoke after the World Cup and I said I think it is time to change because I played a great World Cup, I am really in the game and I am playing good football.
‘Real Madrid is the best club in the world. I don’t want to lie. It is my dream since I was a kid. I was dreaming about this club. We will see.
‘I don’t want to talk about this every day. I don’t have time, but we will talk about my future soon. I think so.’
One thing he is certain about is not allowing his relationship with Chelsea to break down as it did with Thibaut Courtois, who failed to return to preseason in order to force through his move to Real Madrid.
‘I don’t want that,’ said Hazard. ‘I want what’s good for me, but I want what’s good for the club because the club has given me everything.
‘It is like I have said a lot of times: if I leave I will be happy. I know if I stay I will be happy. It is not: if I go I am happy and if I stay I am unhappy. I am happy and I don’t need anything.
‘It is not trophies. Of course, when you play, you want to win. But I just want to enjoy things on the pitch, like I am at the moment. Then I am happy.’
Hazard, twice a Premier League title winner, has started this season playing some of his finest football since he was signed from Lille in 2012.
Like so many others, especially Chelsea’s attacking players, he is thriving in Sarri’s high-tempo style.
‘This is the best,’ said Hazard. ‘ We had some great results in the past, so I can’t say that the managers before weren’t good. But in terms of football and the way we are playing, this is the best football.
‘It is similar to how we played in France with Lille. A lot of pass and move. Movement from the team.
‘Then we also have good players in our team so that’s why we are playing this great football.’ Hazard’s future figured prominently on the list of priorities when Sarri arrived from Napoli in the summer.
The 59-year-old Italian promised to bring the fun back to Chelsea’s football and asked him for five days together in training to convince him of his methods. It is an approach which may be working.
‘You want to play for these managers,’ said Hazard. ‘The way he wants us to play is the way I want to play.’
However, he rejects the idea he has more tactical freedom now than he had with predecessors Antonio Conte or Jose Mourinho at the helm.
‘I had freedom with all of them on the pitch,’ said Hazard. ‘That’s the truth. It’s just when you’re winning games, it’s easy to say that the manager is giving us freedom.
‘If tomorrow we are losing games, the speech will be different.
‘At the moment, we’re winning so I can score goals and the manager is part of that, for sure. He is very good. He is talking a lot with the players. He is joking a lot. When you see him, maybe you think he is focused on the game, but he can make jokes.
‘When he is talking about football, the first thing he says is let’s make you enjoy it. That’s good. We need that.’