Maurizio Sarri wants to keep Eden Hazard and is looking forward to working with him at Chelsea, cooling speculation linking the Belgium international with a move away from Stamford Bridge.
Hazard has been the subject of media reports suggesting Real Madrid are interested in taking him to LaLiga before the start of the 2018-19 season as a replacement for Cristiano Ronaldo, but Sarri indicated the 27-year-old is very much in his plans.
He also compared Hazard with Napoli attacker Dries Mertens, who became one of the Partenopei’s most prolific goal-scorers under Sarri’s guidance during the last three years.
“Hazard is a very high level player and I think one of the top two or three European players,” Sarri told reporters.
“But we are talking about two very high level players. Dries started from lower level. I hope I will improve Hazard too but this is difficult.”
Sarri was asked about a number of players linked with moves away from Chelsea and he made it clear that shipping big names out of the club was not on his mind.
“I would like to keep them in my squad,” he said, when asked about potential approaches for the club’s top players.
“Before that I would also like a player to come on the pitch for four or five days with me.”
