There’s no turning back for Hazard – Balague

Spanish football journalist Guillem Balague believes the future of Chelsea’s Eden Hazard has already been decided and there is no turning back at this point – he is set to join Real Madrid this summer.

Writing for AS, Balague says that there are indications that Real head coach Zinedine Zidane has already spoken to Hazard about the role that would be expected of him to perform at the Santiago Bernabeu, which is to play more centraly – like he does for Belgium, with the Frenchman planning the wide roles for the likes of Vinicius, Brahim and Rodrygo.

Chelsea are, however, in ho hurry to complete the deal. They believe that the Court of Arbitration for Sports, to which they’ve appealed against the two-window transfer ban they’ve been slapped with, will at least suspend the ban until they’ve had the chance to study the evidence given properly. They demand somewhere in the region of €100 million, which is €20 million Real’s estimate, but that difference is seen as a compensation if the Spanish club want to accelerate the process.