Hazard’s humility is Chelsea’s hope

Eden Hazard is torn between a new deal and pursuing a move to Real Madrid; his humility remains Chelsea’s greatest hope of keeping him.

There isn’t much scope to criticize Eden Hazard. But in a world where players receive just as much scrutiny as politicians, the armies of social media commentators, armchair observers and television experts will always find a bone to pick.

In Hazard’s case, any negative appraisal stems from a frustration — a sense that his phenomenal talent is yet to be truly fulfilled. For a man with three league titles, two Player of the Year awards (one in France, one in England) and many other accolades, this might seem like an unnecessarily harsh contention.

But the talent is so brilliant, so unique, so scintillating that we can’t help but demand more. Was 12 league goals last season a fair reflection of his capabilities, let alone six in 2015-16? The problem, as Cesc Fabregas underlined last summer, is that “I don’t think Hazard believes how good he is.” Poor Chelsea. If only he had Cristiano Ronaldo’s mentality.

Not quite. Hazard’s attitude is the reason he’s still at the club. If he had the mindset of, say, Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Luis Suarez, even Philippe Coutinho, would he still be plying his trade in west London? Not a chance. He would have smelt Real Madrid’s trophy cabinet as soon as he lifted his first Premier League title.

With more drive, more hunger, more obsession, Hazard might have stood just below, if not alongside, Messi and Ronaldo for the past half decade. Probably floating around the Neymar region. Madrid wouldn’t have thought twice, as they did last summer.

But he isn’t wired that way. Hazard prefers to pass rather than shoot. Any talk of prolificacy is shrugged off. Any individual praise is secondary to the progress of the team. After Chelsea’s game against Southampton on Sunday, he didn’t even know how many goals he’d scored this season. “Seven or eight,” he said, in his typically candid manor.

It’s not like Chelsea have been short changed, either. Quite the opposite. Hazard, although operating in fourth gear for much of his career, has widely been considered the Premier League’s finest player for a number of years.

His brilliance has been the catalyst for five major trophies and he’s just three shy of 100 Chelsea goals. Imagine the attention had he been in fifth gear. Chelsea wouldn’t have had a hope.

But this is a man that is genuinely, and so refreshingly, unfazed by any form of self indulgence. His sole concern, repeated ad nauseam in his interviews, is to be happy. If it were glory, goals or silverware, bids would have been lodged in 2015 and Hazard would have invited them. Perhaps even forced a move.

That Hazard is not controlled by a profit squeezing, money grabbing agent in the mould of Mino Raiola is telling. Fame, money, recognition — none of them appear to resonate with Hazard — he’s a laid back, down-to-earth family man.

When offered a new bumper contract in 2014, he drove himself to Cobham without an agent, without an entourage and put pen to paper with a smile. That’s not normal for a player of his calibre, and in that sense Chelsea have been extremely fortunate.

But, alas, it’s no longer in 2014, and Hazard’s outlook is understandably different now: “I am 27 and I will turn 28 in January, that’s why I spoke after the World Cup and I said that I think it is time to change because I played a great World Cup. I am really in the game, I am playing good football at the moment, Real Madrid is the best club in the world.”

This all sounds rather conclusive. As does the fact that come summer, with just one year left on his current deal, the leverage will shift from Chelsea to Hazard. If they can’t convince him to sign a new deal, surely they won’t risk losing him for nothing in the summer of 2020?

The Thibaut Courtois saga would suggest not. But Hazard is very different to Courtois — he has a stronger grasp of respect and loyalty, his rapport with the club and with the fans runs far deeper. “I don’t want that,” he said, when asked of the Courtois “mess.” “I want what’s good for me but I want what’s good for the club because the club has given me everything.”

Very few top players would put the interests of their employers alongside, if not over and above, their own. And this is where the hope for Chelsea lies. If the club remain stubborn, as expected, will Hazard risk the drama, and perhaps even his legacy, to secure a move to Madrid?

Bearing in mind that Hazard is, in his own words, “happy and I don’t need anything, I just want to enjoy things on the pitch, like I am at the moment,” then perhaps not. He does reveal that “sometimes I wake up in the morning and think I want to go,” but crucially for Chelsea, “sometimes I think I want to stay.”

Maurizio Sarri’s arrival could be decisive in more ways than one. On the one hand, with the Italian extracting more of Hazard’s talent than any of those before him, Madrid might be more inclined to bid, especially as the goals have dried up since Ronaldo’s departure. Sarri set Hazard an overly ambitious target of 40 goals, but with eight already, the signs are ominous.

On the other hand, Hazard might struggle to jump the ship he’s been waiting for. He has made no secret of his love for Sarri’s methods. Would a man driven by happiness discard such an important source of it?

The issue is broad and complex, and there are limits to our knowledge. But the presence of uncertainty in itself is a success for Chelsea. Yes, there exists a more than likely chance of Hazard leaving this summer, but in the grand scheme of things, is it not remarkable to still have him, let alone possess a chance of retaining him?

And that chance, however small, is rooted not in trophies, not in money, not in fame, but in Hazard’s humility.