Neil Humphreys: Conte can go, Hazard cannot
Chelsea's success ends if the Belgian talisman leaves Stamford Bridge
Eden Hazard's dream performance now makes him a Chelsea nightmare.
He's reached a near mythical status, an exalted position that even the greatest players rarely occupy.
He's bigger than his club.
He needs to leave to thrive. Chelsea must keep him to survive.
The unique imbalance of power between Hazard and the FA Cup winners leaves the unassuming Belgian in a bizarre position.
He holds all the cards. His trophy-winning manager has none.
Antonio Conte's ledger includes an English Premier League title, an FA Cup and widespread popularity on the terraces, but the exit sign still burns brightly.
Conte will be a loss to English football, but the revolving door at Stamford Bridge copes with managerial changes. Coaching chaos is commonplace. (And arguably productive. The cups keep on coming).
But Hazard simply cannot leave. His game-changing performance in the FA Cup final was something else.
Chelsea won because they had Hazard and Manchester United didn't.
Two exhausted teams inadvertently conspired to prove that Hazard is too good for such tepid affairs and far too good for Chelsea next season.
At 27, the maverick's peak looms large on the horizon. He belongs in the Champions League. The Blues do not.
At Wembley, he passed more auditions than a starving actor.
He passed the audition for Real Madrid, which must terrify Chelsea.
With one touch, he ghosted away from a discombobulating defender, accelerated as if running on an airport travelator, earned and scored a penalty and reminded Real that he could reign in Spain.
Hazard won the game on his own. Cristiano Ronaldo does that sort of thing quite a lot in finals. And Real Madrid legends always need successors.
Hazard also passed the audition for Belgium, which must terrify England manager Gareth Southgate.
The discombobulated defender was Phil Jones, who picked the wrong occasion to let his panting, gurning error-prone alter ego put in an appearance.
Belgium and England meet in the World Cup on June 28. Jones would've probably marked Hazard in the group stages. He won't any more.
Hazard also passed the audition for Chelsea, which must terrify Roman Abramovich.
After the final, an underling issued an ultimatum to the Russian owner: Improve the team or I'm off. But it wasn't Conte this time. It was Hazard.
He wanted assurances of Chelsea's plans in the transfer market before making any decision about his future.
This is a first for Abramovich's Chelsea. In the past, none of the boys in blue ever played brinkmanship with the billionaire. They trusted. He invested. Chelsea swiftly returned to winning ways.
But Hazard was a rose among dying daffodils in the Wembley sunshine. Aside from the indefatigable N'Golo Kante and the resurgent Gary Cahill, Chelsea barely resembled the title winners of 2017.
They no longer dominate on the pitch, partly because Abramovich no longer dominates in the transfer market.
He seems increasingly reluctant to compete with Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City and even United.
The latter have easily out-spent Chelsea since Jose Mourinho arrived and yet they never came close to replicating Hazard's dynamism at Wembley.
In a grotesquely inflated market with fewer clubs bartering for a handful of gems, Abramovich finds himself in an unfamiliar situation. He may be forced to sell a player he cannot replace, either technically or financially.
In fairness, Hazard isn't pushing out his bottom lip and refusing to play unless he gets new toys.
He's had a £300,000 (S$542,000)-a-week Chelsea offer on the table for almost a year, but he doesn't obsess over those numbers.
He's only interested in one number. His age. At this stage of his career, he's earned the right to be philosophical.
Hazard made his 300th Chelsea appearance in the FA Cup final, but he's further away from winning the Champions League than ever. He's won plenty of English titles and cups, but not the definitive silverware that matters most to a boy from Belgium.
In the post-match celebrations, Hazard's jubilant team-mate unwittingly revealed the Belgian's genuine dilemma.
"Eden Hazard stays! He stays! Eden Hazard stays," Antonio Ruediger screamed at the TV camera.
Hazard giggled and replied: "I need Antonio Ruediger to play like this every game and then I stay."
He was joking. Only he wasn't. Hazard needs to be first among equals to have any chance of winning the European Cup at Chelsea. But he's a Ferrari among Volvos.
The Blues can't match him on the team-sheet or replace him with a chequebook.
His departure would feel like the beginning of the end of Abramovich's Chelsea.
- Catch Neil Humphreys as he gives his satirical take on the English Premier League and football every Saturday, from 10am to noon, on Money FM 89.3.
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