Real Madrid: Kovacic and James to cover Chelsea's Hazard fee
Real Madrid plan to cover the majority of Chelsea target Eden Hazard's £100-million pricetag by selling loan players Mateo Kovacic and James Rodriguez.
Real Madrid will play all the cards available to them in its mission to sign Eden Hazard, with the key being Mateo Kovacic.
Chelsea have set their price at £100 million (116 million euros), according to media reports in the UK. And Madrid plan to cover the large part of that sum by selling off the Croatian, currently on loan at Chelsea, and Bayern Munich loanee James Rodriguez.
Kovacic and James are two players that Zidane considers expendable and occupy similar positions to those of the two main objectives this summer: Hazard and Paul Pogba. Kovacic has fitted in well at Stamford Bridge since his loan move last summer and on Sunday Chelsea boss Mauricio Sarri admitted that he wants him to stay permanently.
“I'd like very much that Kovacic will stay with us. You know very well that, in that position, we have some problems because we have only Jorginho,” said the Italian coach, signalling that any deal for Hazard would have to include the Croatian.
Chelsea expect FIFA ban to be dropped
In February FIFA slapped Chelsea with a ban on signing new players for the next two transfer windows for violating rules on signing 25 underage players. But both Chelsea and Madrid expect that sanction to be reduced to a caution following the Premier League club’s appeal.
That figure plus the 42 million euros Bayern Munich would pay to exercise the purchase option on James would cover 92 million of the 116 million euros The Blues will ask for Hazard.