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What's the rumour?
As per the Sunday Mirror, Chelsea's superstar Belgian, Eden Hazard, has been identified by Pep Guardiola and Manchester City as their no. 1 target for the summer window; with the Sky Blues reportedly ready to bid a whopping €171 million (£150 million) for the Chelsea man as they look to revamp their squad.
(author's note - revamp that squad? why?)
In case you didn't know
Manchester City, of course, lost out to Manchester United as their neighbours outbid them for Alexis Sanchez, and in a press conference, yesterday Pep Guardiola bemoaned their lack of financial strength.
No, really. He did -
"When you are trying to handle four competitions and such a lot of fixtures you either have to be lucky with injuries or have 22 top players to compete,” the City manager said. “And at today’s prices to have 22 top players you need to find – maybe people don’t believe me – money we don’t have. City are not so different from other clubs. There are salaries we cannot pay. There are transfers we cannot afford."
The heart of the matter
The Mirror state with confidence that City will not hesitate to utterly smash the British transfer record, with Hazard dithering on signing a new contract at the Blues. At 27, they believe that City will get value for money even with that kind of an outlay.
Rumour Rating/Probability
3/10
Because the Neymar transfer proved that impossible is nothing, we are forced to give this a three - if Chelsea need money; and the Abu Dhabi royal family are ready to splurge, anything can happen.
Realistically, though, Chelsea are highly unlikely to sell a player of Hazard's calibre - in his prime, that too - to a direct title rival; while Guardiola's comments in the same press conference about not being able to spend so much on a single player - “Maybe it will happen in the future but so far we have not spent £100m on one player, or £90m or £80m,” the Catalan said “We cannot pay that right now, they tell me. That is the truth."
Video
Imagine this, though, ripping it apart alongside David Silva and Kevin de Bruyne -
Phew!
Author's Take
Hazard's move to City is highly, highly, unlikely in my studied opinion, however, if it does happen, both he and City could move on to a higher level!
