With the end of the domestic football season upon us, we are left to amuse ourselves with the tribulations of “silly season” or the transfer window as it is more commonly known.
Normally the big drama comes on deadline day, but we are not even in June before footballers are already declaring their transfer destinations on social networking sites.
Eden Hazard, the latest Belgian wonderkid, had also been chased by both Manchester clubs, but finally decided on choosing the newly-crowned European Champions Chelsea as his prefered choice.
At just past 11am on Monday, he tweeted to his Twitter followers that “[sic]good afternoon guys. i made up my mind. see you later. thanks”
This caused a flurry of activity on the site, nearly doubling his following to nearly a quarter of a million people. He said last week to the Belgian media that “The final choice also depends on how much play[ing time] I would get and the position where I play.”
This almost definitely ruled out Manchester City, who with their flurry of attackers, were undoubtably going to have to persuade him much harder that he would fit in. Rumours circulated around the site that he would announce his decision after a training session with Belgium at around 6pm GMT, but that came and went with no news, as fans and journalists around the world gave their ‘expert’ opinion and where he was going to be heading, and which employee of the Belgian cafeteria had leaked the news.
United and Chelsea seemed the ideal choices, both with ageing wingers, and the 21 year old could be the answer to the problems at Stamford Bridge, as they look to finish much higher than the sixth place finish they managed this season.
With 20 goals and 16 assists this season, Hazard has all the qualities that Chelsea are crying out for, and shows their intentions after already wrapping up the signing of Marko Marin.
Eden finally put thousands at rest by announcing he was joining the Stamford Bridge club at 9pm GMT.
No doubt Abramovich will have more signings up his sleeve, as he looks to build a squad capable of challenging on domestic and european fronts next season.
By Brad Smith
Follow @BrummieBrad