Newcastle United have reportedly had an offer turned down by Real Madrid for Chelsea legend Eden Hazard.
Hazard is regarded as one of the finest Chelsea players in history. Having achieved virtually all he could have wished to during his time in England, he sealed a £130m move to Real Madrid to work under childhood hero Zinedine Zidane.
While, on paper, it looked like a match made in heaven, Hazard has been unable to produce anything like his best performance level at the Santiago Bernabeu. There is now a strong suggestion that Real Madrid would be open to selling him.
Still, even if Hazard is deemed surplus to requirements, Florentino Perez will undoubtedly be keen to recoup as much of that £130m transfer fee as he possibly can. There’s little chance of him agreeing to sell him on the cheap.
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That would explain why, as is reported by El Nacional, Newcastle saw a £33m (€40m) offer rejected at the start of the month. Selling him at that price would see Real Madrid record a considerable loss on the Belgian.
The trouble is, as has been proved with both Gareth Bale and James Rodriguez, selling expensive mistakes as proven to be difficult for Perez. He ought to take any cash that’s put in front of him at this point.
As for Hazard himself, he was not believed to have the remotest interest in joining Newcastle, who could be playing in the second tier of English football come the start of next season. You can hardly blame him for that.
