Former Chelsea star Gianfranco Zola has confessed that he is in love with playmaker Eden Hazard. The Belgian has been one of the standout performers for the Blues in an otherwise topsy-turvy campaign.
The Premier League champions have failed to get positive results on a consistent basis this season and have been utterly poor since the upturn of the New Year, winning just two league games in 12 matches.
And the poor form has resulted in Chelsea falling outside of the top-four, 5 points off London rivals Tottenham Hotspur, leaving manager Antonio Conte under severe pressure.
Conte, who won the title with the Blues in his debut campaign last year, has come under a lot of fire lately and it looks unlikely that we would qualify for next year’s Champions League, with Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool and Spurs way ahead of us.
But despite top-four spot looking very much bleak and off-field problems growing every day, Hazard has continued to deliver the goods for us.
The Belgium international has so far scored 15 goals in all competitions and has supplied 11 assists this season. Chelsea legend Zola has hailed the 27-year-old for constantly delivering eye-catching individual performances.
“Because we share the same position, I like watching Eden Hazard,” Zola was quoted by the Daily Star.
“He’s an amazing player and every year he seems to be getting better and better. He’s a very exciting player.”
Regardless of having a contract until 2020 at Stamford Bridge, Hazard has constantly been linked with a move to Spanish giants, Real Madrid.
Chelsea are trying their level best to keep hold of their star playmaker by making him sign a whopping £300,000-a-week deal but as of now, Hazard has stalled on the offer and could exit the club at the end of the season after questioning Chelsea’s approach in the 1-0 defeat at Manchester City last weekend.
“I wouldn’t have got a touch even if we played for three hours, even if we improved in the last 10 or 15 minutes,” Hazard said after the game.
“We were better with the ball, but we needed to do that during the whole match.
“For me personally, it’s hard to play well if you only get the ball three times. But, when we got the ball, we had to use it better – we made the wrong choices.”
It’s quite certain that Hazard is little frustrated with the team’s display. However, I am sure that he would want to stick with us through the tough times and bring us out of it rather than jumping a sinking ship.
