The Hard Tackle takes a look at the most important Chelsea news that have been making the rounds
Chelsea are flying in the Premier League at the moment, after eight wins on the trot has seen them create a three-point gap on top of the table. As the Blues prepare to host West Bromwich Albion on Sunday, here’s a roundup of everything happening in and around Stamford Bridge.
The actual transfer fee paid for Eden Hazard
The actual transfer fee that Chelsea paid to acquire the services of their talismanic winger Eden Hazard has been revealed, and it is less than what was originally reported. Belgian outlet Le Soir, in its Football Leaks articles is publishing a series of sensational reports to reveal suspicious financial transactions in European football, in what is being termed as football’s largest ever data dump.
The latest report has seen the revelation of the contracts of the Belgium squad and it includes Chelsea’s Belgian winger Eden Hazard. It has been revealed that Chelsea didn’t actually pay £32.5 million to Lille as was reported during the time of his transfer to the West London club.
Instead, in what now seems to be a huge bargain, the Blues had to shell out just £28 million when they brought Hazard to Stamford Bridge.
In addition to the disclosure of the transfer fee, the report also claims that Chelsea paid Hazard a staggering bonus of £2 million at the end of the 2014/15 season after the star winger won the Premier League Player of the Year award.
The report from Le Soir states: “The first contract of Eden Hazard at Chelsea tells us little. We discover however that the transfer fee between Lille and Chelsea is not €40m and is instead €35m.
“However,his first contract indicates that there was only one clause that enabled him to win a bonus and that it was quite well chosen because it stipulates that: ‘if he is chosen as player of the year, he will earn a bonus of €2.4m.'”
Do Chelsea have the next John Terry within their own ranks?
Jamie Redknapp believes that even though they boast of English football’s best defence at the moment, Chelsea are crying out for a left-sided centre-back. Chelsea have been linked with several central defenders in recent weeks, but Redknapp says that they do not need to look further than an option within their own ranks.
Writing in his column for the Daily Mail, Redknapp said that Nathan Ake, who is currently on loan at AFC Bournemouth, could be a long-term defensive solution for Chelsea and could end up saving the Blues a lot of money. He wrote: “Although there are elements of his game he needs to improve upon, Ake could end up saving Chelsea a lot of money.”
“Chelsea are crying out for a left-sided centre back. Gary Cahill has done well there this season but the position does not come naturally to him.
“Good left-footed centre backs are hard to find, but Chelsea could have a long-term solution on their books in Ake. The last central defender to come through the youth system and become a regular at Stamford Bridge was John Terry. Could Chelsea have finally found another?”
Ake has been a part of the Chelsea setup since 2011 but has seldom found opportunities coming his way with the first team. The last two seasons (including the current campaign) have seen him notch up impressive displays on loan for Watford and Bournemouth, and another admirable performance saw him grab the winner for the Cherries as they came from two goals down to beat Liverpool 4-3 on Sunday.
Chelsea and Manchester City charged by the FA
The FA have charged Manchester City and Chelsea for failing to control their players during last weekend’s clash between the two Premier League heavyweights at the Etihad Stadium. Chelsea ran 3-1 winners over City after goals from Diego Costa, Willian and Eden Hazard saw them overcome a one goal deficit to mount the stirring comeback win.
However, it was an incident in the dying stages of the match which turned out to be the major talking point of the heated encounter. Things reached a head when City striker Sergio Aguero was sent off for a rash tackle on Chelsea centre-back David Luiz in the closing minutes.
Soon after the incident blew up into a melee that fell just short of becoming a full-blown brawl between players of the two sides. City midfielder Fernandinho was also sent off for shoving Cesc Fabregas during the scuffle.
The FA said in its statement: “Both Manchester City and Chelsea have been charged for failing to ensure their players conducted themselves in an orderly fashion and/or refrained from provocative behaviour. It follows an incident in the 95th minute of the game on Saturday (December 3, 2016).” Chelsea and City have until 6pm on 8 December to respond to the charges.