Sean Oakes has been a Gooner for 32 years. He is a freelance journalist and writer and his favourite player of all time is Liam Brady. He will be a regular columnist on The Goon Blog and has a deep knowledge of who we are tracking, scouting and what players we are looking to bring into the club. His first column brings us the story of the first time he saw Eden Hazard in the flesh, a player Arsenal are looking to sign.
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Every generation a player appears and takes your breath away.You take one look and think immediately “wow this boy is extra special!” People always say that they can remember the first time they saw Pele,Maradona or Zidane.
This happened to me four years ago when i watched an u17′s Euro Championship game between England and Belgium.I had tuned in to see our own Henri Lansbury and Rhys Murphy and although they were both outstanding there was one player who stood out like a lighthouse on a dark night!
That was the first time that I saw Eden Hazard.
In that tournament Eden was just 15 years old,3 years later he is ripping apart Ligue Un in France. This boy has everything! Skill,trickery,pace,bravery and is two footed.He has more tricks than David Blaine but he uses them to produce and not just to be a show pony.
He has been linked to every big club in Europe recently including Barca, Real Madrid, Inter, Juventus, Milan, Manchester Utd and Chelsea but it seems as though he has made his mind up as to where he sees his next move. Hazard said in an interview “it would be a dream to play for Arsenal” add to that the fact that Arsene Wenger has been talking about him recently and his liking for quality young footballers it seems too me that the garden Eden is looking to grace is our own Emirates Stadium.
I believe that Eden Hazard will be talked about in the same terms as Lionel Messi and our own skipper Cesc Fabregas.The boy is already a star but he will only get better under the tutelage of the diamond polisher supreme Arsene Wenger.
Arsenal News 24/7
Hi Sean, was the interview with Eden from a reliable source as far as you know? If so, a message to Mr Wenger, “on behalf of every Arsenal fan, please sign Mr Hazard!”
hope he will come even tough Lille set an asking price of 21 mill it was reported today. Arsenal-Barca 2-0 !!!!! Goals Walcott and Nasri with 2 Cesc Assists
Haven’t the chances of signing him now slimmed Martin, price gone up + the fact they want to keep him and play CL footy with them next year
Well firstly Sean, Welcome to a great blog! I’m going to turn this into a bit of an ask Tim Vickery style section:
Could you do a comparison of our own Ryo Miyachi and Eden Hazard? On paper they look like very similar players, ie. could we have both in the same team?
I would love to see Eden Hazard playing for Arsenal but there is a big problem and it is not about the money. Arshavin is aging and we will probably sell him in the summer so you would think here is the space for Eden to play but Nasri plays on the left as well since Theo brought his game to the next level. We can`t have three top class wingers for two spots.Also, Ryo looks like the real deal and he is a left winger too.So if we have Ryo,Eden and Nasri who are all very young fighting for one spot, it is not going to be healthy for the club.
Hazard is obviously very exciting, can’t help but think it looks like a long shot for Arsenal now though. Are we really going to spend £20m on him when we could buy Chamberlain for £10m and keep developing Riyo…
Hazard is a player i will like 2 fan, so arsene p/s make my dream come tru by signing him
as much as i want him to come to the emirates, i just can’t see wenger splashing out 20-25 mio for him.
if we face competition from chelsea, real, man u etc. it could easily be north of 30 mio. if chelsea pays 30 mio. euro for luiz (a defender!)and 60 mio. for torres than 30 mio. for hazard is surely a bargain for their “sugar daddy”.
i do not say it’s impossibel but i would be hugely surprised if we see him in north london.
If one midfield player is sold ie arshavin i think wenger will splash out.
Chelsea, Man City, Madrid, all can splash big money when buying player. Sometimes it down to player which team he want to play. Hazard already mention he want either Madrid or Arsenal so let hope he mean it and ARsenal get it.
it’s a dream to see Hazard on Gunners’ shirt but the 20 mio is against professor AW’s usual policy of not spending more than ten mio on any player on this planet let’s wait and see.
All i can say is that Mr. Wenger should ensure buying players who really love arsenal and are ready to die for the club, unlike ome others who stay behind out of fear and respect for the Boss.
While i’m not totally objecting to bringing Hazard to Emirate however, Wenger’s priority should be reinforcement of the defence line. I just don’t fancy the way Arsenal are conceding goals!!!
We should have signed him last year coz now we have no chance (Money Wise)….The only hope is we offer some P/E like Sunu maybe and A.Traore……..Another player I like is A.Sanchez of Udinese but he is also expensive as for Eriksen of Ajax we should try to do something and quick…Try to sign him now and let him at Ajax for another year as his price will increase every year just look at Hazard….
Wenger only talks about a player when he knows the player wants to come and when he wants the player.
Or in the case of Darren Fletcher when he is crap.
In that same competition Lansbury was the bed player in the tournament in my opinion alongside krkic. He played like gerrard when Liverpool run in in the champions league. Lansbury was so influential
Lansbury was 15 as well he was incredible but his illness has really slowed his development down
Hi Dom
In answer to you’re question it would be very hard to compare the two players.We have to just pull back a little with Ryo Miyaichi and remember he has only played two full pro games!At the moment the Eredivisie is very weak and all of the teams are much of the same standard.
I wouldn’t compare Eden Hazard to any other player!He is a one off and will only get better and better.
That’s the first time I have seen the author’s statement being put in the quotes as the headline. Nice trick, worked on me.
Really pointless article that didn’t tell me anything I didn’t know.