Conte’s cracking MYSTERY OF HAZARD

Mourinho’s tough love brought out the best in Eden, until last season...

JOSE MOURINHO can do charm and Eden Hazard knows it. His best performances at Chelsea were coaxed out of him by the now Manchester United manager.

Back in that 2014- 15 season, when Mourinho was making a nonsense of the ‘never go back’ maxim and Hazard seemed on the verge of joining Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi as one of the world’s great players, the Chelsea boss was in the habit of singling Hazard out in team talks.

If the team were facing an above average opposing player, Mourinho would make a pointed comparison in front of the whole team. ‘That player is no Maradona, no Messi,’ he would say. Then he would add: ‘And he’s no Hazard.’

Quite what words he will use in the United dressing room today to stop Hazard is a moot point. Last month in the FA Cup quarterfi nal at Stamford Bridge, it appeared to be as crude as ‘kick him off the pitch’. Much good it did United when Ander Herrera got sent off.

Today Hazard can demonstrate again just what he can do, as well as take Mourinho’s old club a step nearer the Premier League title. But back in 2014-15, they were an unlikely couple, the manager who dubbed himself ‘Special One’ and a player who could easily be mistaking for an unassuming student backpacker making his way around London were he not a global star. There was genuine warmth between the two.

Mourinho, though, can do withering put-downs as well. According to some close to the Belgian, at other times the manager also told Hazard that he was not good enough for the top and that he would sell him. And back in 201314, when Hazard was still making his way and clearly intimidated by Mourinho, the manager would tell the same team: ‘Today we’re playing with 10.’ Everyone would be aware of who was deemed to have gone missing in action.

It is no great secret that the vagaries of Hazard’s form — from superb to insipid and back to excellent again over the past three seasons — bear a close relationship to Mourinho’s turbulent management style. It may even be that he pushed Hazard too hard because he rated him so highly.

After all, in Montreal on Chelsea’s 2015 summer tour, Mourinho used press conferences to urge Hazard to aim for the same heights as Messi; it was a message he reinforced to the Belgian in private. Mourinho genuinely believed it possible.

‘You are my new Messi,’ he told Hazard. But it seemed to overwhelm Chelsea’s star man. And when Mourinho’s barbs restarted, Hazard wilted. Yet though the player admits he and Mourinho shared problematic moments, they retain an affection for each other.

‘We have lived a lot of beautiful moments — and a few bad ones,’ Hazard told Belgian newspaper HLN recently. ‘The first two seasons under him were superb. I looked forward to working with the best manager in the world.

‘That was something. Especially the second year I played very well: together we won everything. The third season was — how should I say it — a little more complicated. The team didn’t find the right gear, I never reached the level of the year before and that caused some misunderstandings. Between everyone.

‘Contrary to what is said and written, I have always had a good relationship with Mourinho. We never had any big problems.

‘He expected more of me in the last few months but that was normal. I didn’t perform for many reasons. That’s my fault and that of the team. We didn’t respond, with all of its consequences.

‘ I will always be grateful to Mourinho. He’s someone who has contributed a lot to my career. He learned to appreciate me. In the beginning it was hard for me but all managers need time to get to know me in the beginning.

‘ Often they’ll say in the first weeks: “Eden is careless, Eden doesn’t want to train hard, Eden is a clown”. I just like to enjoy myself, even when I’m working hard. That gives a clash sometimes but Mourinho gave me confidence from the start.’

This season, though, has been different. Hazard is on the shortlist for the PFA Player of the Year. The Footballer of the Year award is between him and N’Golo Kante.

‘With or without the ball. Eden is working very well for the team,’ says his new boss Antonio Conte. ‘When we are in possession or not. Eden is becoming a complete player, which is great for him.’

That complete player is what Mourinho wanted for Hazard but could not achieve. When Conte took Hazard aside on a pre-season tour in the US, he was dealing with a player whose confidence had been broken by the vagaries of Mourinho’s mercurial nature.

There was an element of rebuilding to be done, as Conte admits. Asked about rebooting Hazard, Conte said: ‘I think it’s very important to speak with your players. I think it’s also very important to find the right moment to speak with them.

‘It’s crucial at the start of the season but also during the season when you understand there is less hunger, less concentration. After you’ve had a good result, it’s normal that the focus and concentration is a bit less than before.’

In Conte’s approach there is the same element of carrot and stick, that same feeling that Hazard is a player who needs to be pushed to produce his very best. It is just that this year it seems the chats are more constructive and delivered more warmly.

It is clear Hazard is a different type of footballing superstar. His father, Thierry, speaking to the Belgian newspaper Humo, said: ‘ At school, Eden was always happy with 60 per cent: why should it be more? He’s also like that in life: he is satisfied with what he does. He doesn’t necessarily have to be the best or the strongest. I think it is a quality.

‘It doesn’t matter to him whether he scores or one of his team-mates does. He wants to win but it’s not an obsession. Not at all costs. With that mentality, he has come a long way and he will never change.’

That would be hard for Mourinho to countenance. But even their divorce was relatively amicable. Mourinho was sacked after the defeat at Leicester in December 2015 where Hazard effectively substituted himself with a hip injury, while the manager had been urging him to play on.

Yet a few days later, when Mourinho went, there were text messages exchanged. Hazard said that he felt responsible because he had not been at his best.

Mourinho replied: ‘Good luck to you and your wonderful family.’

Of course, today at Old Trafford the transformation from little boy l ost t o global star may t ake another step with Mourinho there to witness it. And doubtless the United manager will say he always knew it would turn out this way.