Sarri grants Hazard request of extra day of vacation before crunch talks

Maurizio Sarri was not exactly pleased with Willian returning five days late from his post-World Cup vacation, calling the player’s passport excuse “strange” before a brief face-to-face chat cleared the air and left Sarri feeling confident that Willian would stay at the club this summer. Willian claimed that the had kept Chelsea informed throughout the process, but Sarri’s reaction belied that claim to a certain extent.

There seems to be no such controversy about Eden Hazard’s delayed return. He was due back today (Sunday), but as revealed by Sarri, Eden asked for a one-day extension when he rang up the new Chelsea head coach on Thursday. Considering that Sunday is Community Shield matchday for the Blues anyway, Sarri didn’t see any problem in granting Hazard the extra day of vacation.

“I talked with him, but we didn’t talk about his future. We talked only about, ‘Can I arrive on Monday instead of Sunday?’ At this moment there is no problem for Hazard.”

-Maurizio Sarri; source: Mirror

Sarri doesn’t explicit say that he granted Hazard the request, but presumably it’s part of the “no problem” situation. Hopefully Hazard’s future is part of it as well. As Sarri has said several times, he prefers to hold such talks face-to-face, so in Eden’s case, the earliest they will happen now is Monday.

Still, it looks likely that we’ll get at least a seventh season from Hazard at Stamford Bridge, and that’s something we can all feel happy about.

Hazard’s budding dad-bod on the other hand ... going to need to hit the gym with gusto!