Official : Eden Hazard to Real Madrid

Thimmy wrote:I'm just surprised that none of the coaching staff, or the people around him, have urged him to be more professional.

This. I still think that him showing up out of shape is inexcusable and entirely on him, but I fail to comprehend why he continues to get a free pass by Zidane and the club as a whole.

I understand that Zidane isn't really the kind of managers who rule with an iron fist, but sometimes you really have to put your foot down and make sure everybody is behaving professionally.

Even Hazard's apparent indifference is a mystery to me. You'll be turning 30 in a month and Real Madrid is quite possibly the last big club you'll play for in your career. Surely you should be motivated enough to at least behave professionally.

Demon, when the superstar platform is reached, with all the clout, all the enabling and all the noise given to you of who you are to what you have done, the hunger tends to go down as ones career is within its twilight stage.

Hazard always was an indulgent personality who never quite displayed a raw desire for the game like you'd expect for his talent. So talented he is its obvious he feel he has more time than he thinks but many retired former stars always speak of their regret in "I wish I did not take my time for granted".

Like Özil maybe he has just lost his passion for the game but to do so in the biggest move of his career by a mile is crushingly disappointing.

Thimmy speaks of him at Lille and I was one of the ones following him when I remember Liverpool having to face them as I followed his talent for 2 weeks and on my expectation, know he can and should be more than what he is at the moment.

Sell this man. Im done

No, definitely not bench him because he's still better than any other option we have.

I was talking more about discipline. I remember reading something about Guardiola in 2009 where he would call all of his players at midnight to see if they are at home or out partying.

I'm not suggesting that Zidane adopts such an extreme approach, but he definitely shouldn't allow Hazard to let himself go.

I didn't follow Hazard a lot at Chelsea, and I could be mistaken about this, but I think he was more disciplined under Conte.

Aside from going off the rails in the off-season, Hazard strikes me as a "bare minimum" kind of guy. Meaning he'll show up to mandatory training and follow whatever instructions the coaches give him during the season. But I don't think he puts any effort into health and fitness outside of what his clubs offer him.

Contrast that with someone like Lebron James, who spends over $1.5 million/ year on personal chefs, trainers, and cutting edge recovery equipment. No wonder he still dominates the NBA at age 36.

The Demon of Carthage wrote:

I didn't follow Hazard a lot at Chelsea, and I could be mistaken about this, but I think he was more disciplined under Conte.

You can chalk that down to motivation. At Chelsea, Hazard had a goal of reaching Real Madrid. It's like players on contract years, a team like Real will not sign Hazard if he isn't showing form and it wasn't a well-kept secret that he wanted to be at Real Madrid

What were seeing now is a player who has reached his goal and it's not what he thought it was. He probably isn't the most self-motivated athlete and perhaps (only speculating), he's not Zidane's favourite player, a title he is used to at club and national team level

We can only speculate, but I don't think lack of faith or belief from Zidane is an issue. You may be right that Real Madrid wasn't what he thought it was, though.

I mean, it's been quite some time now since we've had such a weak team. If he thought he would arrive at a star-studded, Champions League winning team that would allow him to comfortably and effortlessly compete on all fronts through sheer talent and ambition, the truth must've given him quite a shock.

I've never lacked motivation to watch Real Madrid, as much as I do, these days. With or without Eden Hazard, it causes me nothing but frustration to watch us play. We're leaving a historically successful, largely joy-inducing decade behind us, but we're entering the third season of this team looking about as cohesive and dominant as an Old Boys team in the Sunday League, that's slightly benefiting from having a few, energetic youngsters in it.

This guy is magically back from injury now that we have gotten through iur hardest month this season

Amazing how often this guy ducks important games. What a coward

Such a try hard he has been getting injured the whole time he has been at the club, the stupid things you say all the time, everyone is a coward, except biggest coward you love so much higuain it's funny you never have that same energy for him.

You’re the only one who has energy for him, Chad. I don’t even know where Higuain plays, these days.

Hard to admit, but this guy is finished.

What a sad story.

He was already finished 100 burger & fries ago

So like a month ago?

typo meant to write 100k

He's injured again.

Real's turn to endure Dembele 2.0... Although tbf he has finally stayed fit and are doing well for us. Wonder if Hazard will eventually make it at Real or just turn out to be a flop...

Chelsea made us pay up for this buffoon but they spent it on two Bundesliga scrubs so everything is coming full circle

Time to call out numpties like Nick who's always seen bragging about Madrid's 'healthy' balance sheet or the 'good business' they've apparently been doing or so we've been told.

Literally most of the €400M+ they have spent in the past couple of years have turned out to be flops. Hazard, Jovic, Brazilian kids, Militao etc none of them turning out as expected. Whereas the existing 'young core' have fallen of massively. Isco is probably Madrid's Bernardeschi these days, Varane is not Varane without Ramos holding his hand, Asensio and Vinicius have failed to live up to expectations. They're still largely relying on their veterans to bail them out. Hasn't been a smooth transition at all for them post Ronaldo.

I think Atalanta have a good chance of knocking them out IMO.

Perucho21 wrote:Chelsea made us pay up for this buffoon but they spent it on two Bundesliga scrubs so everything is coming full circle

They bought two relatively young players, who still have plenty of time to justify their price tags, and still have high re-sale value. They’re in a much better position than us, following their recent transfer business. Personally, I believe both Werner and Havertz will come good for them, eventually.

I’ve never been the biggest fan of Havertz, but Werner, despite his surprising lack of clinicality at Chelsea, is a very industrious player who can make himself useful besides just scoring goals.

This guy is an absolute joke

We should just terminate his contract at this point

We have an awful medical team. The blame lies largely on them. However it’s absolutely a work ethic problem with hazard as well, there’s no question about it. Players like messi are naturally injury prone but they watch their diet, rehab carefully etc. hazard isn’t one of those players. I got laughed off when I suggested we go after mane; salah or even Mahrez, at the very least we would have a player who plays. Hazard is finished and it’s more due to his own actions versus anything else

Hazard was never this injury prone. There is nothing suggesting those guys you mentioned wouldn't have gotten perma injured had they joined us too

He is out for 4 weeks now