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Real Madrid plan fresh move for Eden Hazard despite £100m asking price
Real Madrid are stepping up their bid to sign Eden Hazard and want to agree a deal with Chelsea before the end of the season. As first revealed by Telegraph Sport, Real have already opened talks with Chelsea over Hazard and are expected to make a fresh approach this week.
Hazard has no intention of signing an extension to his contract that is due to expire in 2020, leaving Chelsea in a difficult negotiating position.
The Blues still value the 28-year-old at upwards of £100million, while Real do not want to pay much more than £85m.
But Hazard is now hopeful a deal will be agreed and Real want the Belgian to be the first signing of the new Zinedine Zidane era.
Hazard will be looking to add to his 17 goals in all competitions against West Ham United on Monday night. His best total for Chelsea remains the 19 he scored in 2014/15, which he is on course to beat.
Chelsea failed in a bid to get their televised Premier League match against West Ham moved forwards because of Thursday night’s Europa League quarter-final trip to Slavia Prague.
And Maurizio Sarri has claimed he would accept taking a pay cut to his wages if it meant the club were able to negotiate a better fixture list.
Sarri admits the lucrative Premier League broadcasting rights, which contribute to him earning around £4.5million-a-year at Stamford Bridge, means he and the club are forced to accept the tough schedule.
But given the choice of more money or greater room for manoeuvre over the fixtures, Sarri said he would take a pay cut.
“For me, it's not so important, the salary,” said Sarri. “So yes, of course (I’d take a pay cut).”
Asked if he was being serious, the Italian added: “Yes, of course. It is important to have fun, for me. To work without working because, for me, it's not work.”
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Chelsea’s request to move the West Ham game was made as soon as the fixture was picked for television, but the Premier League were unsympathetic to the club’s argument.
On having to play two vital games in four days, ahead of a trip to Liverpool on Sunday April 14, Sarri said: “I am not able to understand the decision of the Premier League because we have to go to Prague as an English team. So I'm not able to understand why we have to play on Monday. It's very strange.
“I think the answer (from the Premier League) was that, also in the Champions League, the English teams have only three days (to prepare). I think that, in this case, it was easy to solve the problem. But the situation is this, so we have only to adapt to the situation.”
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino also complained about his team’s fixture list ahead of their Champions League trip to Borussia Dortmund and Sarri added: “It’s not just us, but all the teams involved in Europe. Yes. I think they could have done more for the English teams. In Serie A, teams play on Friday. Teams involved in the Europa League away from home, they can ask to play their next Serie A match on Monday.”
When it was put to Sarri whether it was impossible for him to play the same team for the West Ham and Prague games, he replied: “I think so, also because we have to play after three days in Liverpool, so we'll need to change.”
Although he would be happy to take a pay cut if it meant Chelsea had greater control of their fixtures, Sarri would not ask the same for his players and conceded he and his players must accept their testing schedule.
“For the players, no (they shouldn’t be paid less), because the Premier League is the best championship in the world,” said Sarri. “So we need to have very strong players.
“The Premier League was able to sell in the best way possible the (television) rights, so in England we are lucky. We can buy the best players in the world, we have the best championship in the world, and so we have to accept we have to play every three days.”
Declan Rice joined Chelsea’s Academy as a seven-year old in 2006, but was released eight years later and joined West Ham. He has since become an England international with the Hammers and is a summer transfer target of Manchester United.
Ahead of the 20-year-old’s return to Stamford Bridge, Sarri admitted that he could do with a player like Rice in his squad while also confirming he would like to make Mateo Kovacic’s loan from Real Madrid permanent if Fifa would allow it.
“I think that Rice is a very good player, very good in the defensive phase because he's really very able to recover the ball,” said Sarri. “He usually plays very close to the defensive line and, in the first match against West Ham, he was really a very big problem for us. I think he is improving in the offensive phase. He has improved during the season because I saw their last matches and I saw a very good midfielder.
“You know very well that, in that position, we have some problems because we have only Jorginho. In my opinion, Kovacic could become a very good central midfielder.
“Of course, he is not a defensive midfielder (at the moment) but, as you know, in that position I prefer a very technical player. In the last match, Jorginho touched 161 balls. So, for us, it's very important for us to have big quality in that position. Big quality not for the last pass, but big quality in terms of moving the ball.”
Asked if he would want to try to sign a new midfielder to challenge Jorginho in the summer, Sarri said: “No, I want to try with Kovacic. He is only on loan, of course, but I’d like very much that Kovacic will stay with us.”
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