Chelsea must make huge Eden Hazard transfer decision for Mauricio Pochettino as return date set

Let us start with a quick disclaimer because it is needed. Eden Hazard should not be returning to Chelsea in a playing capacity in any shape or form.

It needs saying with Hazard more than with others simply due to who he is and what he means. Very few figures in football are able to conjure the feels that he can bring out of supporters en masse. He is, all things considered, a unique case and someone who's circumstances align with logic to dictate just why a homecoming needs to be out of the equation.

Taking emotion out of things, and with Hazard it is near impossible to do such a thing, this is a 32-year-old crocked winger with seven goals in four years.This Hazard, the one without a club having ended his five-year contract with Real Madrid 12 months early, is not even close to the 2015/16 Hazard that flopped in the midst of a calamitous season at Stamford Bridge.

The Belgian is shot of confidence, of form, of the electricity that sparked his career. He has been left to rot on the bench at Santiago Bernabeu andthe man left behind is not one ready to compete or offer anything tangible to a side fighting for a return to the top.

This is all without considering that at Chelsea there is no genuine room for Hazard. Unless they were to take him on for free in a non-playing role, a motivator and happy-go-lucky smiley-faced bobble-head figure, then there is no benefit. Hazard is not the quickest, fittest or most skilful player. He isn't the best and there is no evidence to suggest he can actually contribute.

Add in that he has had no pre-season, though that rarely stopped him when he was at the club before, and there is already a mountain of injuries and there really is nothing to be gained. Across the front-line Chelsea have two