Ethan Ward

The story surrounding Eden Hazard is as bizarre as anything I’ve seen since the Juan Mata story. The Belgian star will probably stay, but it’s the fact that he’s been heavily linked with a move away from the club with no one really denying that a move is on the cards. Some theories include the fact that Jose Mourinho and Hazard had a bit of an argument towards the tail-end of the season with the former criticising the latter’s dedication to the team.

There has been a lot of discussion this week about whether or not Chelsea should or should not offer Ashley Cole a new contract, it’s looking more unlikely now that Chelsea will offer the long serving left back a new contract. I have to agree with Mourinho that it is for the best to let Ashley Cole leave.

I’ve talked an awful lot about the strikers at Chelsea in the past few days. Criticising them all, but discussing each and every rumour that links them away from the club. For players like Romelu Lukaku and Samuel Eto’o, I have been quite generous towards them as I wouldn’t mind them staying. However, a big money striker must be brought in though.

Defenders aren’t used to being subject to the kinds of bids that midfielders and strikers receive; which is a blatant suggestion that the latter two positions are the most important in the team. However, things seem to be heading that way as the amount of money thrown around by today’s papers are getting more and more ridiculous.

As the domestic season is about to come to an end, with just a few more competitive matches left to play, thoughts have turned to next season for many domestic managers, players and fans alike. However, the world will come together over the summer for the biggest footballing event of all time; the World Cup. For the lucky few that get to fly out to Brazil they will be hoping they can impress the domestic managers enough to either earn a permanent place in their team or use it as an advertisement of their skills.

A complicated situation has arisen at Chelsea this season. It’s not often you get a big team with misfiring strikers; especially not all three of them. Unfortunately for Jose Mourinho, that has been the case this season. He’s had to factor that into his decisions for the campaign which has seen him attract criticism, but he knows that his strikers aren’t good enough to use them as the focal point of the team. Instead the trio of attacking midfielders have led the way.

The feeling of being replaced is never a nice one, knowing that someone considers you to be a worse player than the one he’s chosen. Often it can lead to that player leaving or occupying a seat on the bench every week. An ugly situation, but one which most players go through in their careers.

At the start of the season most people expected Chelsea to be up there with the best due to the fact that the “special one”, as people refer to him nowadays, had returned to manage the club for a second time and vowed to bring Chelsea trophies this season.

It’s always healthy to have competition in a team. Each player pushing the others to become better as they obviously want to tie down a consistent place in the starting line up. The flip side of this is that tension could be created in the ranks because if one player is in form then they’re not likely to be benched and this would anger the alternative option who wants to play week-in-week-out.

Sometimes you get a group of players that are so good at what they do, the fans and the club never want them to leave. Manchester United’s treble winning squad and Arsenal’s invincibles spring to mind when this topic is up for discussion. However, age and the modern game catches up with these players and they soon start drifting off into their own different directions. It’s sad when this happens because you don’t quite know how they’ll be replaced.