Real Madrid are ready to offer Chelsea a bumper swap deal to bring Eden Hazard to the Santiago Bernabeu.
The incumbent European champions have been desperate to acquire the brilliant Belgian playmaker even before Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure to Juventus in the summer.
It has been universally acknowledged that Los Blancos have failed to replace the peerless Portuguese adequately, but stepping up their attempts to sign Hazard – whose contract at Chelsea currently expires in 18 months time – with two talented makeweights is a sure-fire way to rectify that criticism.
Hazard arrived at Stamford Bridge to great fanfare from Lille in 2012 on the back of Chelsea’s Champions League success.
Whilst that level of European success hasn’t been forthcoming, the Belgian has gone on to help Chelsea collect two Premier League titles, an FA Cup, a League Cup, and a Europa League.
According to Ondo Cero (via The Metro), Real Madrid are ready to offload both Isco and Mateo Kovacic to Chelsea in exchange for Hazard, who has been batting his eyelashes over at the Spanish capital amid contract extension uncertainty in West London.
Kovacic has been on loan at Chelsea since the start of the current season. Under Maurizio Sarri, the 24-year-old midfielder has featured in all but one Premier League game since his arrival.
It is a player of Isco’s calibre that may well tempt Chelsea to part with their talisman.
Not a first-choice pick under Zinedine Zidane, out of favour with both Zizou’s successors Julen Lopetegui and Santiago Solari, the Spaniard’s time in Madrid looks almost certain to be up having been dropped from the startling line-up for their last five games, not moving off the bench in two.
The 26-year-old has been mooted with a move to the Premier League before even being currency for a Hazard purchase. It was claimed that Chelsea were one of three clubs fighting for the £70m player’s signature earlier this month, ahead of the January transfer window opening.