Could Eden Hazard be Real Madrid’s next Galactico? The Belgium international – winner of the PFA Player of the Year award in 2014/15 – has been at Chelsea since the summer of 2012, but rumours linking him with a move to the Bernabeu have seemingly never been stronger.
Currently enjoying a strong season at Stamford Bridge – he has already scored 14 league goals, matching his total for 2014/15. He has also been named in the PFA Team of the Year – and you can certainly see the allure behind why Los Blancos would love to bring him in. Do I think he’d succeed, though? Actually, the answer is a no. Here are five reasons why.
#1 Something about fish and ponds and the like
Okay, so the saying is usually about a big fish in a small pond, but to be honest, Chelsea isn’t a small pond – by most football club standards, it’s a pretty massive pond. Maybe a lake or something. But compared to the ocean that is Real Madrid, it’s a hell of a lot different.
In Chelsea’s squad Hazard is the top dog when it comes to their attacking midfielders. Sure, they have the likes of Willian, Pedro and Victor Moses, but while they’re all effective none really come close to Hazard’s talents when the Belgian is at the peak of his form. He’s arguably Chelsea’s key man point blank if you strategically ignore N’Golo Kante.
At Madrid, though, the team that can boast the world’s best player in Cristiano Ronaldo, alongside Gareth Bale, James Rodriguez, Isco and Toni Kroos. Now I know you could probably class Ronaldo and maybe Bale as more forwards rather than attacking midfielders these days, but the point still stands: even with all his talent, I’m not even sure that Hazard would be the fourth-best player on that list.
Perhaps he’d be better off sticking to Stamford Bridge and being the very large fish in the very large lake rather than being a very large fish in an ocean filled with sharks. Or dolphins. Ronaldo would definitely be a dolphin.
#2 He didn’t perform in 2015/16
In 2014/15 there’s no denying that Hazard was absolutely fantastic. He was handed the No. 10 shirt at Chelsea following the departure of Juan Mata and totally lived up to the hype surrounding him. He helped the Blues complete a Premier League and League Cup double whilst winning the PFA Player of the Year and Chelsea’s own Player of the Year – for the second season running.
He was so good that then-manager Jose Mourinho labelled him one of the best three players in the world, presumably along with Messi and Ronaldo.
2015/16 though didn’t go so well. Chelsea began the season basically in free-fall, losing the Community Shield to Arsenal, and by October they were languishing in fifteenth place in the Premier League. Hazard’s form suffered badly during this period and although it improved somewhat once Mourinho was fired, he still courted controversy by considering a move to Paris St. Germain.
Ending the season with just four goals in 31 league games was simply not good enough for a player of his calibre, and a season like that should he move to Real Madrid would see him jettisoned for sure. It’s a firm reason why the potential for failure at the Bernabeu would be high.
#3 Can he cope with the pressure?
Hazard was under a lot of pressure last season when his form dipped and admittedly, he has rebounded well this season. But let’s be honest, the Premier League has nothing on the pressure-cooker that is La Liga, particularly if you play for Real Madrid.
Look at the criticism that Gareth Bale was hit with in 2015 after he went through a bit of a bad patch. And in Real, you’re not only facing insults from the fans, but also from the media. Heavily. Bale’s command of the Spanish language, his relationships with teammates off the pitch, even the way Cristiano Ronaldo looks at him and shakes his hand has been analysed by publications such as Marca.
Could Hazard handle that kind of pressure? He certainly seemed mentally broken at times last season and in the European Championships last summer, when the going got tough for Belgium in games against Italy and Wales, Hazard didn’t exactly get going.
It may have been an issue with the whole Belgium team in a way – reminiscent of some of England’s squads in the mid-2000’s.However, to succeed at Madrid, Hazard will need to deal with pressure unlike any other in football. It wouldn’t be easy.
#4 The Ronaldo factor
This one plays into #1 in a way, but it’s even more magnified. Even if Hazard were to hit the ground running at Real, he’d still likely end up running into the brick wall that is Cristiano Ronaldo at some point.
Ronaldo simply dominates everything at Real Madrid. He’s their best player, their key man, arguably the most successful player they’ve ever had. Even when he’s not in top form and others are outperforming him – see the 2013/14 Champions League final. He still finds a way to somehow make himself the top headline. And it’s not always in the right way.
Just recently Ronaldo was apparently furious with boss Zinedine Zidane for substituting him in a game against Athletic Bilbao. And we’ve already seen some issues in his relationship with Gareth Bale, with rumours persisting that the Welshman is forced to play on the left wing due to Ronaldo demanding to be played further up the field.
Could Hazard – used to being Chelsea’s key man – really slot into a team alongside someone with the ego of Ronaldo? I’m not so sure, and if it came down to it, there’s only one dominant player at Real Madrid and he’s Portuguese and likes to flex his muscles a lot.
#5 The instability in general at Real Madrid
Real Madrid are probably the biggest club in world football right now and there’s no denying they’re the most successful. Part of that success is down to their policy of buying the world’s best players constantly, their ‘Galactico’ project. Sometimes it has succeeded like anything, as with the signings of Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, and more recently Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale.
Other times though it hasn’t quite gone down so well. Look at what happened to Michael Owen at the Bernabeu, or Kaka, or Mesut Ozil, or James Rodriguez.... you get the picture.
When the world’s best players are usually flashy attackers, then sometimes Real end up with a situation where too many cooks can spoil the broth. After all, there’s only so many flashy attackers that a team can use, right? Which means there’s only ever going to be limited places in the starting line-up.
Throw in Madrid’s penchant for changing manager at the drop of a few points – Zinedine Zidane is their seventh manager in the last decade and there are already rumours of Joachim Low replacing him – and sometimes top players can find themselves frozen out by no fault of their own.
At Chelsea, Hazard has stability for the most part at least. Real Madrid are about as stable as Charlie Sheen on a cocaine bender. For me, that wouldn’t bode well for a move to the Bernabeu.
