Lille's Eden Hazard to lead summer French invasion of leading players to the Premier League
It was no surprise that the first significant transfer deal of the summer involved Newcastle United acquiring a highly-rated young French midfielder, Remain Amalfitano, and it is no surprise that the player at the centre of the biggest tug-of-war between Premier League clubs is also currently playing in Ligue 1.
Wanted: Eden Hazard, centre, is being chased by a host of Premier League clubs Photo: REUTERS
By Jason Burt 6:15AM BST 25 May 201221 Comments
Eden Hazard is at the top of a new wave of France-based players who are becoming hugely attractive to Europe’s leading clubs. Ligue 1 will be the transfer battleground once the window opens.
No deal will eclipse the clamour for Hazard, the 21 year-old who is wanted by both Manchester clubs and Chelsea – although he may have overplayed his hand with indications on Thursday that all three clubs are ready to walk away.
His agent, John Bico, has helped manufacture the situation partly because Hazard is extremely talented and partly because the Lille playmaker is his one major client.
However, the Belgium international has gone along with his representative’s tactics of flirting with every potential suitor.
First it was Tottenham Hotspur, then Manchester United, then Manchester City, Chelsea and, on Thursday, there was even talk of an old flame being rekindled with Arsenal.
Hazard, as he has done more often than not in recent weeks, took time out from preparing for a match to again publicly reiterate the clubs who are after him.
It is an eye-watering proposition. Hazard wants £4.6 million a year net of tax (so £9 million a year in salary for any club who sign him) with an astonishing £6 million in agent’s fees going to Bico.
That is more than double, according to one Premier League chairman, the previously highest fee paid to an agent.
It had appeared that City, who have made most of the running but have grown frustrated at the exorbitant demands, would sign Hazard but Bico belatedly interested Chelsea – with calls last Friday – and now it is becoming a case of who pays the most. And that is without any club having agreed a fee with Lille, who want around £28 million.
They will not be the only French club profiting hugely this summer from England. Newcastle have shown the way with a string of successful signings – most notably Hatem Ben Arfa and Yohan Cabaye – and there are others to follow and ones who will come at a far higher price.
A month ago Arsenal were said to be “99 per cent” certain of signing the Rennes midfielder Yann M’Vila for around £16 million but might turn to Toulouse’s Étienne Capoue.
United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has been to watch another Lille player, defender Mathieu Debuchy – set to be France’s first-choice right back at euro 2012 – who is also wanted by Newcastle, while Tottenham’s Harry Redknapp was in Paris last week to meet striker Loïc Rémy to finally try to prise him away from Marseilles.
Then there are the surprise French champions Montpellier, whose defender Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa has already declared that he would like to come to England, while midfielder Younès Belhanda is also being considered by clubs who may miss out on Hazard. Above all there is powerful striker Olivier Giroud, the top scorer in the French league who is wanted by clubs across Spain and England and appears set to also arrive on these shores.
Unsurprisingly, six of the players mentioned made the Ligue 1 team of the year and it is also the strength of the French league – long gone are the days of Lyon’s domination – that has helped not only make it more competitive but attractive to clubs who want to cherry-pick the talent.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...of-leading-players-to-the-Premier-League.html
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