Chelsea are bracing themselves for a battle this summer to keep a number of their star players, with Eden Hazard, Thibaut Courtois, Diego Costa and Oscar all reportedly eyeing the exit door.
The quartet’s futures are all up in the air, with a source indicating that their respective long-term contracts will do little to keep them at the club:
“Yes, they’re tied into deals but those contracts won’t stop rivals moving in at the end of the season. And they won’t stop our players considering their futures either. Contracts don’t count for a lot these days.”
Courtois, Oscar and Costa are all contracted to the west London club until 2019 and Hazard until 2020, but the Blues’ nightmare 2015-16 campaign has them all considering moving on.
The poor results see them 14th in the league and likely to miss out on Champions League football next season. This has led to questions over the dressing-room atmosphere and uncertainty over the next long-term manager at Stamford Bridge to leave Chelsea “fearing an exodus,”
The loss of Hazard would be a big blow. He has had a terrible time of it this season for Chelsea, he has yet to score a goall but he is one of their star players, having been named the Premier League’s Player of the Season in 2014-15 when the Blues won the title.
He has been widely linked with a move to Real Madrid in the summer, but Los Blancos’ imminent transfer ban is likely to rule out a move to the Bernabeu.