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A rather laughable rumor emerged from the bowels of the Sunday Mirror on ... well, Sunday, claiming that plucky little Manchester City are ready to have a go at making FFP truly a joke and go after Chelsea’s Eden Hazard for a cool £150m, alongside a Premier League record £500k per week contract. Pep’s got to win his quadruple, after all!
Obviously that’s just nonsense, but it sure makes for a good headline, so Chelsea saw fit to respond via the usual channels. Here’s the Telegraph’s Matt Law to reassure that no such shenanigans will be happening anytime soon, regardless of transfer fee.
Chelsea will refuse any bid from Manchester City for Eden Hazard - even if it’s a world record fee #cfc #mcfc https://t.co/1DtPTIJqVD
— Matt Law (@Matt_Law_DT) January 30, 2018
The current world record transfer is Neymar’s €222m switch from Barcelona to PSG. Unlike Neymar, Hazard’s contract does not have a buyout, so even City were willing to plunk down the £200m+ it would take to break that record, Chelsea could refuse.
Sorry, would refuse. Because for all the talk of Chelsea’s (lack of) ambition, the club isn’t actually. The financial landscape may have changed since 2003-04, but that just means we have to operate a bit more strategically, rather than just through brute force.
In any case, Eden Hazard is ours and you can’t have him. Not even for a world record fee.
Here’s Pablo Zabaleta to act out this story.
