Chelsea are desperate to sign Leonardo Bonucci and are even willing to send Eden Hazard to Juventus in exchange for the centre-back.
Chelsea are determined to bring Leonardo Bonucci to Stamford Bridge. So much so that the Blues are even willing to send Eden Hazard to Juventus to seal the deal, according to The Sun.
Antonio Conte is still in the process of piecing together his Chelsea team and Bonucci is his number one transfer target. The Bianconeri have shown some willingness to do business lately but were demanding a world-record fee for a defender and midfielder Cesc Fabregas in return.
Conte is more interested in exchanging Hazard than Fabregas, however, due to the Belgian’s higher value in the transfer market. Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri prefers Fabregas because he sees the Spaniard as a better fit for the Serie A champions.
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What is this willingness to sell Hazard a sign of? Just the desperation of Conte to sign Bonucci? Or that Conte wants Hazard out anyway, and this is just an opportunity to lower a potential world-record fee for a defender? It’s opportunistic, that’s for sure.
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If you don’t want Hazard, for whatever reason, then doing a deal to get one of the world’s best centre-backs is not a bad way to go about moving him on. Although, Hazard was on top of the world just two years ago.
Is it not a little soon to be throwing in the towel on the winger? A terrible season last year only went along with the script of the entire club. Whilst this season is only seven games old. Hazard has looked back to his best in flashes this campaign.
If he regains that more as the season goes on, then it would be a catastrophic mistake were he to be allowed to leave the club. Bring Bonucci in – but sacrificing Hazard might not be the smartest move. Maybe it is? Maybe the Belgian is done. A one-hit wonder.
Perhaps Conte can see all of this. Regardless, it seems a little early to make that call. What about Fabregas? Juventus prefer the Spaniard over Hazard. Fabregas is the type of ball-playing midfielder that the Chelsea midfield lacks right now.
Selling Fabregas doesn’t seem the wisest move either. But if the playmaker is never going to win Conte over then you have to back the manager. At the end of the day, the club would potentially be gaining Bonucci.
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That in itself, given Chelsea’s horrific defense, would be quite the coup. The Italian is 29 years old – right in his peak as a centre-back. Many more years at the top left in him. It’s easy to see why Conte is so desperate to bring Bonucci in.
However, it’s not quite as easy to see why he would be keen to see Hazard go in the opposite direction. Or Fabregas for that matter.