Real Madrid Transfer News: Eden Hazard Rumours Sparked by Cristiano Ronaldo Talk

The current campaign could well be Eden Hazard’s last at Chelsea, with reports suggesting the Belgian starlet will be off to Real Madrid should Cristiano Ronaldo depart the club next summer.

According to L’Equipe (h/t Sport Witness), Hazard is concerned by a “lack of ambition being shown” at Stamford Bridge, while his “cool relations” with manager Jose Mourinho are also noted as a reason for his discontent.

According to Le10Sport (h/t Mark Brus of Metro), L’Equipe also suggest the Premier League Player of the Year will only leave the Blues as a replacement for Ronaldo, should the Portuguese sign for Paris Saint-Germain. Sky Sports’ Spanish football expert Guillem Balague recently claimed that Ronaldo could leave Real next summer, suggesting PSG would be “the best solution” for him.

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At the moment, things aren’t going especially well for Hazard. Although he featured in the Blues’ stalemate with Dynamo Kiev on Tuesday in the Champions League, he was dropped by Mourinho for the Premier League clash with Aston Villa last weekend. “I left out Hazard because we are conceding lots of goals,” said the manager, per Matt Barlow of the MailOnline.

Sports journalist Rafael Hernandez thinks the Blues boss would be making a massive mistake if he was to force Hazard out, as he has done with other attacking talents:

Indeed, while the 24-year-old may not be the most defensively diligent, at his best his attacking input can tip matches Chelsea’s way. Last season he was consistently excellent, regularly contributing assists, goals and magical moments on the Blues’ path to Premier League glory.

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Letting him depart would leave a lot of supporters disappointed, but according to Sport Witness, L’Equipe claim “when Hazard talks about his future in private, there's always one club which comes up: Real Madrid.” It’s also noted in the article the winger needs to up his goal return in order to be considered a replacement to Ronaldo.

After all, as we can see here courtesy of the Champions League Twitter feed, the Portuguese is one of the very best goalscorers of this generation:

Rumours about Ronaldo’s future don’t seem to be going away anytime soon. As noted by Brus’ piece, PSG have been long linked with a move for the 30-year-old and with Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s contract with the club up in the summer, the French giants could well be in need of a goalscorer.

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Real would be at loath to let a player of Ronaldo’s quality leave and his goals would be extremely difficult to replace. However, Hazard is one of a few players in world football who potentially has the talent to fill the major void that’d be left. 

As football writer OffsideLiam noted, if Ronaldo does depart, the Belgian would be an ideal acquisition for Los Blancos:

Despite reports Hazard wants to move on, Chelsea have a big say in whether or not their star man will leave. In addition, Mourinho has been critical of the winger previously, most notably after a Champions League semi-final loss to Atletico Madrid in the 2013-14 season, before he took his game on to new heights the following campaign.

Perhaps the Portuguese, who has struggled to get consistency out of his team this term, is hoping for a similar reaction from Hazard in the coming weeks. Even so, should Real be on the hunt for a Ronaldo replacement next summer, the former Lille man is a player who will surely be near the very top of their list of candidates.