Eden Hazard – Chelsea Career - From arrogance to future giant of the game

We’ve seen a bundle of excellent talent walk out on to the turf at Stamford Bridge over the years, particularly in the Roman era, and it is clear that Eden Hazard will be a superstar of the global game over the years.

Having had a season ticket in different parts of the ground since the 1995/96 season, I feel very fortunate to have seen so many greats wearing the Chelsea blue in the flesh. For whatever reason though, I’ve never been more excited about a player than our young Belgian.

I (along with most of Europe) touted Hazard as one of the best young talents in the game. It was a Champions League group game between CSKA Moscow and Eden’s Lille a couple of years back, where I got my first glimpse of him.

He was the centre piece of everything Lille were doing that night, and as it turned out pretty much the whole of the last two years he was there. Me and my old man were just sat there thinking “wow, this kid can play”.

Once it became common knowledge that Hazard would be on the move in the summer last year, I was desperate for us to get him. With us struggling to make the Champions League, it looked pretty unlikely. All sorts of rumours were flying about that he’d be “wearing blue” or “playing in Manchester” the following season.

One thing was for sure, he was definitely coming to England, so that ruled out the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid snapping him up.

City and United finished a rather large 25 points clear of us in the league. We wouldn’t even be playing Champions League football next season if we didn’t beat Bayern Munich in the final, in their own backyard, with a depleted….(Ok, Ok I’ve milked that enough).

Anyway, we won the Champions League much to the sheer delight of nobody outside of Chelsea, and gave ourselves a real shot of signing the world’s best talent for another summer. Hazard seemed to be playing a game with the media and kept everyone guessing where his destination would be. It became a straight fight between City, United and Chelsea.

For weeks, I thought he was nailed on to go to City. They’d just won the league and seemed like the most attractive (££££) proposition for the modern footballer. Then it sounded as if City had pulled out and he was going to United.

By this time, a lot of fans were pretty sick and tired of the whole saga. My good mate Marc even said to me “I don’t even want to sign that arrogant pr*ck anymore”. I could understand the frustration, but I still wanted him badly. This kid is special.

The day came where he announced where he’d be playing his football next season. We’d got our man for the small sum of £32m. This bloke better be worth it.

Fast forward through the summer and pre-season, we kicked off the Premier League campaign at Wigan. Hazard was in the lineup alongside Juan Mata, and I could not wait to see these two together.

So, within 7 minutes of his Premier League debut, Eden had spun on a sixpence and laid in Branislav Ivanovic for goal number one of the season, and then danced around the Wigan defenders to the point where one had enough and hacked him down in the box.

Super Frank converted and it was pretty much plain sailing from there. The boy had arrived. Another dazzling performance in the 4-2 win against Reading in the first home match of the season had us all purring again. We’ve got a player on our hands here.

Throughout the rest of the season, Hazard has continued to impress. He’s had a few quiet patches but that’s to be expected in your first season in a new team/country.

Some of the goals he’s scored have been quite exceptional (see United away, Sparta at home, Stoke away) and the performance he put in at home to West Ham last month was as good as anything I’ve seen in world football this year, let alone the Premier League.

What excites me most is that he seems capable of doing anything. His change of direction and speed off the mark are an absolute joke. Touch, speed, work rate, goals assists. He provides all of it in abundance.

His connection with Oscar, and in particular Mata, is there for everyone to see, and they haven’t even had a full season together yet. Imagine the havoc those three will cause in years to come with a better midfield and striker to play with.

People say that Hazard doesn’t work for the team as much as he could, but I’m not a believer of that. It’s just a case of a bit more coaching and development in the defensive bracket. We’ve got to remember that he only turned 22 years old a few months ago.

He’s got bags of time to develop into an even better player than he already is. A lot of his abilities remind me of Cristiano Ronaldo. He’s an athlete as well as a footballer and very strong for his size. He’s got a way to go before he reaches Ronaldo’s level, but I firmly believe he can get there.

There’s no doubt in my mind that in years to come, Eden Hazard will become one of the best players in world football. It’s just one bloke’s opinion, but a bloke who’s seen a lot of great players at the bridge and all over Europe.

The key thing for us as a club is to get back to being a dominant force in England and Europe so that the likes of Hazard don’t start looking elsewhere. We’ve got a potential superstar in our ranks, and it’s a joy to watch.