The Premier League can again become the best in the world

Eden Hazard played so poorly for Jose Mourinho that he felt compelled to apologise to him for his miserable form, after Mourinho had been sacked by Chelsea. He did so by text, which could be interpreted as either cowardice, or a sense of shame for letting down his former manager. Or perhaps, it’s just how Hazard felt like communicating, and it’s not worth psychoanalysing the man in a football blog. Either way, Hazard was not the only player to struggle under Mourinho this season, for one reason or another. Most of the team was at fault, and while that doesn’t excuse Mourinho, who has ultimate responsibility for the way the team plays, it should be noted that most of them have since come out of their slump.

While they have suffered injuries to Kurt Zouma and John Terry, and Terry has also said he’ll be on his way at the end of the season, they have nevertheless kept their unbeaten run under Guus Hiddink in England intact. They might have suffered a defeat to Paris Saint-Germain last week in the Champions League, but that is a defeat that could happen to most of the best teams in the world. That they only lost 2-1, and remain with a theoretically substantial chance of qualification to the next one, is proof of their 2016 improvement, not a contradiction.

However, while most of the side have switched their form around, Hazard is taking his time to readjust. He started the season off the pace, and was one of the players identified by Mourinho as an underperformer. There was clearly a tension between the two players, despite what they had achieved together in the previous year. Hazard has also suffered from injury, and that too might be holding him back from finding consistently high levels of performance.

But the suspicion is that he is simply preparing to leave Chelsea. Hazard, like most players of his ability and age, probably has a career arc already planned out. Just like Gareth Bale wanted to join Real Madrid of Manchester United when the choice was not so straightforward, or when Wayne Rooney spent three seconds considering a move to China. With China and the MLS now offering generous pension benefits, Cristiano Ronaldo, David Beckham and others will work out how best to milk their career for trophies, money and longevity. It would be no surprise if, having moved to Chelsea and won a Premier League trophy, Hazard would now like to jump ship to a club which stands more of a chance in the Champions League.

Real Madrid, with their history of adding one or two of the best players in the world to their squad each season, and Paris Saint-Germain, with their brief history but reserves of a state’s natural gas behind them, are both more likely to win the trophy than Chelsea currently are. Perhaps Bayern Munich and Barcelona are at a similar level, but Barcelona have no need for Hazard, and there’s a distinct lack of glamour at Bayern, because, well, they’re German.

As Hazard has said he would find it ‘hard to say no’ to PSG, and Real Madrid will soon need a replacement for one or all of James Rodriguez, Bale and Ronaldo, he is well positioned to make a move this summer, perhaps at an ego-satisfying price post-Euro 2016, when costs rise for no supportable reason.

What this would mean is that Hazard would be added to the list of players who, approaching their peak, decide the Premier League is not suitable for their talents. Bale and Ronaldo have already been mentioned, but Angel Di Maria plainly resented having to spend less than a year in Manchester before he could make his way to Paris. Sergio Ramos only considered a move to England when he hit 30, and Pedro left Barcelona because he could not make his way into the Barcelona starting eleven.

Similarly, Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez were not prised from their respective clubs, but cast aside by richer and stronger ones. Bastian Schweinsteiger moved to join Louis van Gaal because he could no longer demand games at Bayern Munich, where he had been usurped technically and physically. David de Gea, Cesc Fabregas, Paul Pogba and others, all left or wanted to leave because, at least in part, there are more attractive places to play than England now.

Because of tradition, money and the breadth of competition in England, the Premier League retains its glamour and earning power in the eyes of viewers, and in plenty of players who know they can make a step up from the best of the rest in Europe. But what is obvious now is that unless the domination of the two Spanish sides and Bayern can be broken, and unless that is also done in conjunction with the decline of the brilliantly assembled Juventus squad, then England will remain unable to claim that it is the best league by all metrics.

The Premier League, then, should be incredibly grateful for the wealth of Manchester City, and that they have finally managed to attract Guardiola as manager, after years of attempted seduction. They should also hope that Mourinho, not Ryan Giggs, turns up at United, and that Chelsea turn to someone altogether more exciting than Manuel Pellegrini, perhaps Diego Simeone. That would mean that the three best managers of the most exciting period in Spanish football, when the two Madrid clubs and Barcelona tore strips off one another with astonishing intensity, would now be in England. Guardiola is the world’s best coach, and could attract the world’s best players with the world’s highest wages. United are currently planning how to spend another third of a billion pounds, ideally with more success, and Chelsea have an oligarch not yet out of love with football. With any luck, the disinterested Hazard might leave, and the Premier League could reassert itself as much stronger despite that.