Another day, another Eden Hazard-to-Real Madrid rumor. The Spanish media have been going at this for about four years now, if not longer, but they seem undeterred in their quest to make the Chelsea man the latest Galactico to sign for the club.
Marca's latest Hazard piece full of juicy insider details. Pity it spells Marina Granovskaia name wrong tho. https://t.co/JtxQiMn5ij
— Dermot Corrigan (@dermotmcorrigan) March 27, 2017
The latest salvo comes from Real Madrid mouthpiece Marca, who claim that Chelsea made a pact with Hazard last summer that if a Real Madrid offer came, we would listen, and presumably let him join — but not before trying to convince to stay by promising to buy €200m-worth of players, or something.
Marca: "Chelsea are 'open for negotiations' with Real for Hazard". Usually not the thing that Marina Granovskaia promises to players. #cfc pic.twitter.com/aSxMoD97QJ
— Kristof Terreur (@HLNinEngeland) March 27, 2017
Monday was actually the second straight day that Marca plastered Hazard onto their front page. The usual claims of James Rodriguez or Isco going the other way to ease the transition also make an appearance. Neither James nor Isco seem like actual replacements to Hazard’s style of play (and Isco at least has claimed quite strongly that he wants to stay at Real), but let’s not worry about such minor details.
@MARCA "Proche d'Hazard"
— Real-France ⚽️ (@realfrance_fr) March 26, 2017
• #Zidane veut le joueur qu'il a recommandé en 2012
• L'intérêt de #Conte pour #James peut faciliter l'opération pic.twitter.com/sj4CPXUhPn
Madrid’s Hazard bid, should it ever actually arrive, would no doubt be a world record transfer fee. At least that’s what the Mail claim, who piggybacked on these latest Spanish cries for attention with their own take yesterday.
Real Madrid will test Chelsea with world-record bid for Eden Hazard https://t.co/kcwZCaB3hO
— MailOnline Sport (@MailSport) March 27, 2017
And so, Real’s mission, should they choose to accept it, is to launch ‘Operation Hazard’. As before, this mission will probably turn out impossible (unlike in the eponymous movie and TV series), but hey, at least we’re another day closer to the end of the international break and the return of actual football.