Hazard ‘inching closer’ to Real Madrid; Hudson-Odoi rejects latest Chelsea offer — reports

As if we didn’t have enough to worry about, the rumor mill is here to remind us that it could always get worse. And while neither of these rumors are breaking new ground by any stretch of the imagination, their timing is certainly inauspicious.

Rumor the first comes courtesy of Marca, complete with plenty of editorialization that Eden Hazard is once again “inching closer” to Real Madrid, who apparently believe that he “can quickly become one of the leaders of a team that will undergo drastic surgery in the summer transfer window”. We may have plenty of questions regarding Hazard’s leadership and mentality, but Real apparently do not. Of course, once he’s surrounded by top level talent left, right, and center, most such shortcomings and days taken off probably would be mitigated to a large degree — at Real he’d be part of a solution whereas at Chelsea he continues to be the one and only possible solution.

That said, the reality of the Hazard situation, for all intents and purposes, is probably the same as it has been for some time as he continues to mull over this big question. His answer is unlikely to arrive before the summer.

We may have to wait that long to resolve the Callum Hudson-Odoi situation, too, which may be a good thing as he apparently continues to reject Chelsea’s contract offers. According to the Mail, he’s set to ignore even £85k per week thrown at him by Chelsea — after a similar report claimed an offer of £50k per week — though CHO’s reported concerns had never centered on money but rather playing time and path to development, so maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that throwing money at the problem hasn’t fixed it.

Hudson-Odoi has featured in four straight games and has now reached ten appearances for the season. Those numbers are all trending the right way, but they may be too little too late — the 18-year-old may stick around until the summer, but like Hazard, he’s facing a career-defining choice.