Never mind Sarri, Hazard exit is the real concern

EDEN HAZARD has made his mind up. We all know what that means. If his decision was to remain at Chelsea, he could announce that now. The only reason he keeps secrets is because the club, and its fans, won’t like what he has to tell them. That doesn’t mean he is definitely off to Real Madrid. He is under contract and there is a fee to negotiate; but Madrid is his choice. The fate of Maurizio Sarri, therefore, pales in significance compared to this. Chelsea’s last two titles were won by Hazard’s excellence; the crashing failures that followed occurred in seasons when he went missing. And now he wants to be absent, permanently. Chelsea were once again not playing Sarri’s football on Sunday. If only we knew the identity of this mysterious figure who keeps sneaking in and coaching Chelsea to all of their defeats and poor performances. Whenever Chelsea lose, Sarri distances himself and his methods from the debacle; whenever Chelsea win he claims ‘his’ football has saved the day. Yet even if Sarri makes it to next season, the loss of Hazard is a game-changing blow. The idea of Jorginho as Chelsea’s regista, as it is known in Italy, is one dimensional and has been exposed. Yet the only reason it worked to even a limited extent this season is because Jorginho has one of Europe’s greatest players to hit with his

passes. Take hazard (right) away and Chelsea’s attack is rather pedestrian. Christian Pulisic is coming, and there will be others on the market as always — maybe even Gareth Bale if he could be made part of any deal with real Madrid — but no-one in hazard’s class. Carry on like this and Chelsea may not be in a position to offer Champions League football either. This is shaping up as a perfect storm of problems, one that Sarri would need a whole playbook of ideas to solve. As opposed to just the one. Give it to Jorginho does not always work, even if he can then feed hazard. And if he cannot; where do Chelsea go?