Eden Hazard could ‘consider transfer request’ to force Chelsea exit — report

Chelsea have one game left in each of the Premier League and the Europa League, set for Sunday and Thursday, respectively, before the full squad fly out to America for a charity friendly next Wednesday. And should we advance past Frankfurt, we would also have a Europa League final to play at the end of the month.

And that could be that for Eden Hazard’s Chelsea career after seven seasons.

The Spanish media certainly expects that to happen any day now, though the English media has been rather quiet about all this recently. By all accounts, Chelsea continue to play hard-rumor-ball on the price (it’s unclear what, if any, official talks may or may not be actually going on).

With the Blues holding out for at least £100m, if not £120m, Real Madrid’s media forces are marshaling for a big push. Diario AS open fire with the “transfer request” ballista, though they load it only with a “does not rule out” arrow, and put a flag of last resort on it because of Hazard’s “gratitude” to Chelsea.

As always, it’s a lot of coulds and woulds and maybes and ifs and buts. When it comes to Hazard, there is always a big but.

While a transfer request formalizes part of the process of leaving, and it means that the player forgoes any loyalty bonuses as well, it is by no means binding (either in terms of a set fee, or the exit itself). Chelsea could choose to ignore it, accept it, or reject it. With just a year left on Hazard’s contract, it would be a dangerous game to play were we to not accept it, but perhaps we can think through the ramifications should the situation ever devolve that far.

Until then, the focus is on finishing the season the right way.