John Bico, Eden Hazard’s representative early in his career, spoke to media about the Belgium international’s transfer to Chelsea and away from Stamford Bridge.
Hazard was one of the highly anticipated players making rounds in France then and had the club’s grounding red carpet to welcome him. Though, Chelsea eventually won the race in 2012 – Spurs missed out on him marginally.
Speaking to La Dernière Heure (via Sportswitness), Bico was quizzed about why a move to Tottenham failed he replied: “You have to remember that Tottenham at the time played the best football in England and even in Europe. The team was exceptional: Walker, Parker, Modric, Bale, Defoe. Except Daniel Levy was too honest to guarantee that Bale and Modric were going to stay. If Bale and Modric had stayed, Eden would have gone to Tottenham.”
Eden Hazard concluded his seven-year stay in London with a move to Real Madrid in the summer of 2019 which has not worked for him in the way many anticipated. John Bico, who represented Hazard till 2013, analyzed Eden’s failure to get his feet running in life in Spain.
“It was a mistake to go to Real Madrid at that time. It was his choice, he made it with his heart, but without reason. Should be gone a year sooner or later, but never the year Ronaldo left (actually Cristiano left in 2018). Arriving after your departure is like climbing the Himalayas with bare hands. You have to know how to dare to say no to Eden and, unfortunately, some do not dare. I would have advised him to leave the year before or a year later, leaving Chelsea through the big door,“ Bico continued.
That’s not where it ends, Bico went a step further to say that Eden would have fit in at Barcelona rather than Real Madrid.
“People don’t realize and forget the athletic dimension of this team. They have a very physically demanding game in terms of pace and intensity because the technical level of the team is close to 10/10. Great talents like James are not. have adapted. In that sense, Eden is not a player for Real Madrid, but for Barça. It is to Barça where it should have gone, where the ball runs faster than the players, unlike Madrid, where the project does not go according to its physiognomy.
“He should have stayed one more season at Chelsea to walk out the front door and, above all, prepare his body for the changes to come. At Barça he would have had a great time, he would have had more freedom on the pitch, he would have had the ball constantly at his feet, he would have become the best player in the world“.
VERDICT:
Well, we are concerned about him joining Spurs and what could have been. Although considering the money on concern that Daniel Levy could derive from Gareth Bale & Luka Modric – It’s predictable that he cannot promise the club rejecting them big offers. But it also shows how money-driven Spurs have been over the past decade rather than talent & opportunity-driven. This is not the only story – there are multiple of these over the years where Tottenham have missed out on talented superstars over-promising the end road & talent on show. This needs changing!
