Chelsea optimistic Eden Hazard will sign new £300,000-a-week deal

Chelsea are optimistic Eden Hazard will sign a new £300,000-a-week contract as he tries to take his career to the next level by finally proving himself in the Champions League.

Hazard knows that Chelsea want to reward him with a new deal and reaffirm his position as the club’s highest earner with a huge pay rise.

There is encouragement from both sides that the forward will sign an extension, although there have been no hints as to how quickly an announcement could be made.

Despite interest from Real Madrid, Hazard is known to be happy at Chelsea, where he was joined this summer by his 22-year-old brother, Kylian, who was signed from Hungarian club Ujpest.

As Chelsea prepare for their toughest Champions League Group C match against Atlético Madrid, there is a feeling that, despite his recovery from the ankle surgery that has restricted him to one start against Nottingham Forest in the Carabao Cup, this is Hazard’s time to shine against Europe’s best.

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Indeed, the 26-year-old has been told he can win the Ballon d’Or at Chelsea, rather than needing to move to Atlético’s city rivals, Real. But to do so, he must step up his game on the biggest club stage.

Whether or not he is fit enough to start against Atlético on Wednesday night in the newly-opened Wanda Metropolitano stadium remains to be seen. But there is a sense that head coach Antonio Conte has been taking a softly, softly approach to Hazard’s full return from injury with this game in mind.

Hazard could share a pitch with another player tipped to eventually take on Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo for the highest individual honour in football, Atlético’s Antoine Griezmann, who finished third in the 2016 Ballon d’Or.

Griezmann has played 35 times in the Champions League for Atletico scoring 15 goals, and finished as a runner-up with the Spanish club in the 2015-16 season.

For a player Chelsea are prepared to make the best paid in the club’s history and who is valued at well over £100m, Hazard’s Champions League statistics make rather more modest reading.

Following Hazard’s Premier League title-clinching goal against Crystal Palace in May 2015, Cesc Fabergas said: “Next year he has to prove himself in the Champions League as well because he is capable of that and I am sure he will give many big nights of glory to this club.”

But Hazard failed to register a single goal in the Champions League in the season Fabregas referred to and you have to go back to March 2015 to find the last time he scored in Europe.

In 31 appearances in the competition for Chelsea, Hazard has scored only five goals – two of which came against Maribor.

So far, the Champions League has largely been a source of frustration and angst for Hazard. Following the 2014 semi-final defeat by Atlético, former manager Jose Mourinho questioned his desire by saying: “Eden is the kind of player who is not so mentally ready to look back at his left-back and live his life for him.”

There were echoes of that criticism in Mourinho’s assessment of how Hazard had prepared for the 2015 trip to Dynamo Kiev after the former Lille player had been left on the substitutes’ bench for a comfortable Premier League victory over Aston Villa.

Having already warned that Hazard needed to “come in our direction and try to replicate the same work of Willian and Pedro”, Mourinho told reporters in Kiev: “How did he train? He trained like Eden.”

But Mourinho’s words were overshadowed by the fact Hazard had liked an Instagram post linking him with a move to Real Madrid shortly before boarding Chelsea’s flight to Ukraine.

The question marks surrounding Hazard’s desire were eliminated during a superb first Premier League season under Conte, but a tongue-in-cheek assessment of himself suggested the pair may not share exactly the same philosophy.

Speaking to France Football, Hazard joked: “You don’t need that [tracking back]. You can write that. Don’t tell Conte, but you can write that it’s pointless. If you defend too much, you tire yourself out.

“If I’ve spent the whole game defending, forget about me being useful after the 60th minute and I’m quite fit.”

He added: ‘There are people who are meant to defend, while others are there to attack. I defend too. I don’t like it, but I have to with Antonio [Conte].”

Hazard will certainly be ordered to track back if he starts in Madrid, but there is no doubt that Chelsea need him fit and firing if they are to make a big impression in the Champions League and if he is to justify the club’s belief they have a future Ballon d’Or winner ready to put pen to paper.