Morata tempers Real Madrid’s Hazard expectations

Spanish journalists caught up with Chelsea striker Álvaro Morata yesterday at Spain’s training camp on the outskirts of Madrid, and naturally, they had to ask him about the big story of the past 48 hours. After all, Morata spent his formative years at Real and as much as he loves Italy, he has a big soft spot for his boyhood club as well.

So it’s perhaps noteworthy that, after admitting that he’d talked to Eden about Madrid before, he tempered expectations a bit regarding the idea of Florentino & Co being able to just swoop in for Hazard if and whenever they’d want. (Morata would probably prefer to play with Hazard than without him, too.)

“If he has said it that clearly [that he wants to play for Madrid] then that’s the way it is.”

“We’ve talked ... it’s not that he wants to leave Chelsea but if Madrid come in for him, that won’t be an impediment. But the thing is that he has a very good relationship with the club, he’s happy there and it’s not like other cases when a player wants to leave a club at any cost. He will also keep in mind what’s good for Chelsea.”

-Álvaro Morata; source: Deportes Cuatro

So there’s good news and bad news in there. But the bad news only comes into play if Madrid actually make a move, which they refused to do in the summer, and even then it may not be a done deal automatically. As long as Hazard doesn’t actually push for a move, it’ll be all good news. Certainly, we should not expect anything to happen in January, like some tabloids would want us to believe. Surely, neither Hazard nor Chelsea themselves want to screw the club over that badly, in the middle of a potentially excellent season.