Reports yesterday suggest that Arsene Wenger is preparing a renewed offer for Lille playmaker Eden Hazard in the January window.
If rumours are to be believed, Arsenal had offers for two of Europe’s brightest stars in Hazard and Mario Goetze rejected in August.
The latest news is that Wenger will be returning to Lille with a player plus cash offer, which will include both out of form striker Maroune Chamakh and out of favour defender Sebastien Squillaci at Christmas.
Both these players starred in French football and I imagine would jump at the chance of playing for the French champions, but the question is would Lille want them?
Of course there is also the question of sentiment in dealing with Lille after we angered them greatly stealing Park Chu-Young from under their noses when they thought the Korean captain was en route to them.
More worryingly might be the claim coming out of Inter Milan that Lille will not speak with them concerning Hazard and their subsequent belief that a pre-contract agreement has been signed with Real Madrid for the Belgian international. I am not sure if this is the case, but there are several reports claiming that Real have authorized Zidane, now their Director of Football, to open talks with Lille for Eden.
There are various points that interest and intrigue me about this story, but I have little doubt that there is truth in the reports that Wenger will go back and try his best to lure Hazard to the Emirates. He has tracked him too long to give up now.
If we look first at this from our team perspective and where does Wenger envisage playing the Belgian, who Joe Cole , his new team-mate, described as the best young player he had seen for his age.
Last season Hazard played on either side of the main centre forward, Moussa Sow, for Lille, swapping flanks with our own Gervinho . Interestingly, the Ivorian outscored and out assisted Hazard during Lille’s push for the French league and cup double. So if Wenger sticks with the same formation then he could deploy Hazard out wide. However, this would put huge pressure on Gervinho and Walcott to perform and also limit the development opportunity for Oxlade-Chamberlain. Therefore I think it is more likely that Wenger sees Hazard slotting directly into the position where Fabregas operated just behind RVP.
There is no doubt that Hazard could flourish in this free role and as Arsenal legend Robert Pires said of the youngster:
‘His instinctive nature and willingness to constantly disrupt the opposing defence is very rare to find at this level.’
Interestingly, a respected European football journalist told me recently that Hazard is playing a free role at Lille and it is playing with Joe Cole that is bringing the best out of him.