Chelsea legend Ashley Cole has revealed exactly what Eden Hazard is like on the training ground. Cole played alongside Eden Hazard in the final two years of his time at Chelsea.He says the Belgian is one of the greatest players he has played with. However, Cole admits Hazard was never the best trainer during non-match days.
“He’s got to be up there in the top three or four, what he can do on the ball,” Cole said of Hazard on Sky Sports. “In training you wouldn’t think it, probably with his hands in his pockets and his laces undone. “But when he gets on that pitch on a Saturday afternoon he’s electric. “He can go left, he can go right, at times he’s unplayable, as we’ve seen in the season. “He’s a big player for them and you need him to keep firing on all cylinders.”
Hazard is Chelsea’s top scorer in all competitions this season. And Cole says it is important the forward stays fit to build a partnership with new loan signing Gonzalo Higuain.
“We know how big of a key player he is for Chelsea,” Cole said of his former team-mate. “But I think with Higuain coming in I think they’re going to settle in well. “He scored two great goals at the weekend. “And yeah I think we need Hazard to be on top form in every game, which I don’t know is a good thing or a bad thing. “I think we need more of the other players to step up their game. “But yeah I think if Hazard gets injured it’s going to be difficult for Chelsea to keep fighting for that top four.”
Ashley Cole also revealed the manager he enjoyed playing under the most during his time at Chelsea – and it will come as a surprise to many. Cole played under eight different managers at Chelsea during his eight years at Stamford Bridge between 2006 and 2014. He played during both of Jose Mourinho’s two spells in west London. Cole also won the Champions League under former Chelsea midfielder Roberto Di Matteo. But when asked who his favourite manager was, he said ex-Brazil boss Luiz Felipe Scolari. He also mentioned Carlo Ancelotti, whom he won the Premier League with in 2010. Scolari was appointed Chelsea manager in 2008 but was sacked the following February after a poor run of results. But Cole says Scolari helped him get back to his best on the pitch and claimed the style of football was the most attractive out of all the managers he played under.
“I enjoyed Scolari, Ancelotti, they’re probably my favourite two,” he said on Sky Sports. “Scolari came at a time where I wasn’t playing as well as I probably knew I could when I first came to Chelsea. “Probably Chelsea fans can agree with me that I wasn’t the Ashley Cole they knew at Arsenal. “So he came and he brought this new lease of life. It’s just like playing for Brazil, he said, ‘let’s play like Brazil’. “And he had me bombing up and down against people like Jamie Carragher.
“[Jose] Bosingwa on the other side and we kind of had no rules in terms of we could play, we could go where we want. “The left and right-back were going at the same time and that’s kind of unhear of at times. “We were playing some great football and then probably by December we kind of petered out a bit and after that he got the sack. “The best football we have ever played in a football shirt but he got the sack six months later yeah.”