Monday 20 February 2012

Do We REALLY Want Eden Hazard At Arsenal?

Over the last couple of years Eden Hazard has become quite a talented little lad.

The Belgian international has become one of the most sought after players in Europe and he is loving the attention.

Giants of the game like Arsenal, Real Madrid, Manchester United and Barcelona have all been linked with a move for the Lille play-maker.

Clubs on a smaller scale have had their names thrown into the hat for Hazard's next destination too. 

Although realistically Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur would be just be happy their names are mentioned in the same breath as the teams above.

Now a player of Eden Hazard's undoubted potential and quality would be more than welcome at the Gunners. 

But I worry about his intentions when he has flirted and fluttered his eye-lids with every single club I have mentioned at one time or another.

It concerns me because I believe that he sees moving to England, his apparent preferred destination, as a stepping-stone to moving to Spain one day.

We've had young talented players in the past, rough diamonds that Arsene Wenger has polished, join the club, only to leave when they begin to fulfil their potential.

And that makes me feel sicker than the time I ate 2 large Doner Kebabs after a night drinking copious amounts of Budweiser.

I don't like that feeling. It is horrible. And after seeing Hazard physically coo at numerous clubs I get an inkling he would do the same to us too.

Of course I wouldn't complain if Eden did join Arsenal in the summer, and I could be very wrong about him. 

But I would be keep an eye on his conduct in a couple of years time if Real Madrid or Barcelona came sniffing around, if, in fact, he isn't on their books already.

Inevitably, if he isn't, the two, slightly-bigger than Arsenal, giants from La Liga will come knocking on Hazard's door and his Barca DNA could well kick in.

And we could be heartbroken like times before.

As I've said, I wouldn't complain if he joined the club, but I would definitely have it in the back of my mind that he wouldn't be here for the long-haul.

In my opinion, not that its worth much, I would rather Arsenal target older and more experienced players. Players who are at the end of their career.

These players will finish their playing days with us and provide the squad with that much-needed wisdom.

Players the age of Mikel Arteta would be perfect in my book. Plenty of knowledge and still having the legs to not get cramp after football like I did in the meat aisle at Tesco the other day.

This type of footballer might not have a sell-on value as such, and we know that Wenger loves a player with sell-on value, but we need to look at a short-term option instead of the usual long-term vision for a change.

I admit after writing this I could be very wrong about Eden Hazard. In fact, I could be being more out-of-order than the condom machine in my local, but its just a fear I have.

I would very much enjoy it indeed if Eden Hazard joined the Arsenal, it'd be a huge boost, but I'd be constantly worried about transfer window if he did.

Follow me on Twitter @_Wrighty7

Keep It Goonerish.............

29 comments:

Alex said...

You're suggesting he actually wants to join your "work in progress" team?? The fact is you're no longer mentioned in the same breath as the other clubs you mentioned. To think you are is a gross over-estimation and would devalue your opinion. I'm a spurs fan, but I'm realistic. You have a lot of catch up to do in the transfer market to be mentioned in the same breath as Barca, Madrid, and Man Utd.

Time to wake up and realise that someone like Hazard is exactly the sort of player you need. Missing out on players of his class will surely send RVP packing. And then what?...

Wrighty7 said...

Its called irony Alex

Anonymous said...

Do we really want Eden Hazard at arsenal

Ok lets phrase that in a different way... Do we want the french player of the year or do we want gervinho and park calibre players at the club

Same league... very different players (quality wise)

Anonymous said...

I would go for Mertens at PSV, does the same job at a higher level with stats better (and at international level) than fellow countryman Hazard and is mid-twenties and cost less if we can prize him from PSV and would not give us all sleepless nights.

Anonymous said...

We love rvp. No player is bigger than the club. Any player who wants too leave should go. When we have a team of players who all are proud to fight for the shirts on their backs then we will become invincible again. Gunner for life.

Anonymous said...

Before anyone shouts about having the "French fooballer of the year" tag at our club Cygan was one, Traore was a young one. A lot of people have lambasted these very quickly

Mertens anyday...

Alan

bubble9 said...

Dont worry mate, its highly unlikely that he will want to join a team not in the CL, which is very very possible. So your fears are unfounded, he wont be going to the arse.
Ps Im sure he saw the drubbing by AC Milan and is thinking " Do I wanna be part of that!!!"

Anonymous said...

Millions saw Real Madrid get slaughtered 5-0 by Barcelona. Millions saw Man Utd lose to Basle and destroyed by Man City 6-1.
People really like to overplay the significance of one or two poor results and qualifying for the Champions League.

Top players joined Man City when they had no European Football and no trophies in decades.

Top players joined clubs like AC Milan, Inter, Barcelona and Bayern Munich when they had failed to qualify for the Champions League in previous years. It's not the be all and end all.

Many players would rather be at big clubs than clubs with recent success, or clubs with a long term future than short term plans. Then there's those who will go to the club with the best contract offer.

Anonymous said...

Forget Hazard and buy Mario Gotze.
Better player for me.

Anonymous said...

What has Hazard done at Champions League level? The boy may end up good but he's unproven at the top level and Gervinho had far better stats at Lille than his teammate and we can all se how good he is. Hazard could end up costing over £30 million and that's a lot to invest in someone who might not make the grade. Plus he's flirted with Spurs, the scum - hopefully he was joking as no top player would want to join that nothing club who have spent nearly three times as much as Arsenal on players since 2006 and have not once finished ahead of us in that time.

Also, Arsenal are still a top team, we made it to the final 16 teams in Europe again this year, when you do that year after year like us it pretty much points to you being in the top 16 teams in Europe and there are thousands of teams in Europe, terrible season for us and we'll still probably make the top 4.

Anonymous said...

For the price we will be paying for eden hazard, we could get 2, maybe 3 top quality players... Which is what we desperately need. While all the top clubs are blinded in their chase for him in the summer, go quietly for gotze, podolski etc... Hazard could still be good for us, used like this and not as a 30m+ gamble

Anonymous said...

I'm not wanting to be a cunt, but really Wrighty, at least proofread your article once before posting. More sentences had gross grammatical errors than not.

Also, who cares if someone is in love with the Arsenal shirt. People need to wake up and realize football has lost its romance and nostalgia. It's about two things: trophies and contracts. As long as players don't have both of those, or at least the possibility for trophies, they couldn't care less.

Even if we bought Hazard for 30 million, he plays lights out wins us a trophy and leaves to Madrid 2 years later for 40 million, is anyone serious in saying they wouldn't take that right now?

visionary said...

wrighty, we already have one hazard at the club already, known to the dim as professor wenger
give me mcclean for £400.000 any day of the week. bye the way where was our magnificent scouting team for that one and he on our doorstep??????

Anonymous said...

Hazard's a done deal guys!
A done deal.
No prob.

Anonymous said...

Giants of the Game ehhh? all those European Cups you gooners have won sure make us all quake, bonafide "giants" alright..oh wait...whats that I hear you cry what no European cups?? not even one?? it cant be true for we are "giants" of the game..and pigs will fly :-)

Spunky1 said...

What's a spud doing reading and commenting on a gooner blog called wrighty7 ? The day I'm so bored that I end up reading Bent11 and then owning up to the fact that I'm a big Bent11 fan would be a very sad day indeed. Ps I don't know Bents squad number and couldn't care any less than I do

Naylor said...

The fact of th matter is YES! We do want Hazard at the club. He will be amazing for us NO DOUBT and it would show the rest the we will not lie down! To much Depression going on with Gooners ATM! we need to rally behind not against!

Anonymous said...

a central midfield of hazard, wilshere and ramsey surely would be unpredictable enough.
we desperately need a player in the center who can beat players with the dribble and fire the team up and Hazard can definitely be that player.
worst case scenario, he leaves, at a very big price. cant not buy players because of the possibility that they will move on at some point. especially when its arsenal, and its just a common trend for young players to eventually move on. but maybe with players like chamberlain, wilshere, ryo and coquelin Arsenal might be able to hold onto their star players in the future.

lev said...

Can we replace M'Vila with song and bring in Pato/Remy and Dembele. Song has been inconsistent and M'Vila is the new makalele. Reason for striker is obvious. Dembele is a cheap attack midfielder who does the job.

Anonymous said...

i think we all want the best players at arsenal but the chances of that happening are becoming slimmer and slimmer... we may get the occassional gem, but until that wage structure is revised forget it. You cant expect to compete with real, barca, bayern, utd, city, chelsea etc if you cannot match them for wages. Its not even so much the challenging for trophies its the wages (which arsenal cant offer) - ask nasri.

Anonymous said...

Great shout for dembele... top prospect and probably one of the most underated players in the top flight. the one thing he seems to lack is goals but that guy can play football for sure.

Rich said...

Regardless of whether he would join us or not, its pointless bringing in another winger/attacking midfielder when our defence, defensive midfield and strikers are so poor.

As has been shown in the last two matches, we are totally inept at getting our attacking players into good positions because our passing is so slow. By the time Gervinho, Walcott, AOC, RVP get it, they are surrounded and facing a wall of players.

Messi would struggle to play in our team right now...

Anonymous said...

He saw Arsenal got whipped 4-0 by AC Milan? But he also saw Arsenal whip Blackbun 7-1, same Blackbun that beat ManU at OT.

Anonymous said...

Why is Alex on this page if he is a spurs fan?

Zain said...

Yea you're right we dont need him. No need to improve the squad 4th is good enough. Oh wait. Not even 4th.

Anonymous said...

Are you in England? ...Why the &*#( would you drink Budweiser - it undermines your credibility entirely.

Hazard would do well at Arsenal, but there's lots of other needs too.

Rahul Rijhwani said...

It's true that he has flirted with every club around, but he still is quality. We need that extra bit in our midfield.

More at - http://arsenal-fromthesidelines.blogspot.in/

Anonymous said...

Only reason players have been leaving for spain is their 25% tax.
Quality players will prefer england now.

Why should he go to a lesser league when the pay is the same ?

Sorry about the bad english.

Gooooooner said...

If the Milan and Sunderland performances have taught us anything it's that we need more creativity in midfield.

Whether that creativity comes from Hazard remains to be seen, but we need someone world class to fill the void left by Cesc. Gotze would be another option but the competition for his signature will be even more fierce than for Hazard's.

Personally I don't think we'll sign either of them and pursue the pointless quest of finding cheaper alternatives in the vain hope they'll come good.

As other commenters have mentioned, if we miss out on the CL our options are going to be seriously limited. I'd love us to sign M'vila, Hazard, Vertonghen or Hummels at CB and perhaps a striker if RvP goes. Let's just hope we make 4th...