Following one of the worst self-advertisement stunts in recent years, Eden Hazard announced his move to Chelsea via twitter last night.
The west London club have added a potentially excellent player to their squad – Hazard is the only player together with Lionel Messi to have scored more than 20 goals and have more than 15 assists in any European league this year – and an even bigger ego to go with it.
Despite the transfer being done and dusted virtually before the start of the transfer window, the saga dragged on long enough to disappoint fans of the two Manchester clubs who have – allegedly – missed out on the former Lille man.
But have they? City will no doubt console themselves with another spending spree this summer, while United have reportedly agreed a fee to sign Shinji Kagawa from Borussia Dortmund.
The modern footballer is a very simple creature, the bigger the amount of money on offer, the likelier it is that a player will join a team rather than the other, which means that, despite David Gill’s bullish statements, United faces another summer of insecurity in the market.
Sure, for all we know United might not even have formalised an offer for Hazard but, at the same time, if they did and failed, the Belgium international will join a rather illustrious list of “we tried, it didn’t work out” targets United have missed out in the last few seasons.
What does that mean for a club the size of United?
A few years ago the thought that being the most successful English club with arguably the greatest manager in the history of the game was not enough of an incentive to swap London, Spain or Italy for the red half of Manchester could have been labeled as madness, but the last few years have proved that money talks louder than history and heritage.
Players are always motivated by money just as top players have always commanded big fees and seeking shelter behind a romantic attitude will not change the course of things anytime soon.
Not for players that announce their career developments through twitter, anyway.
Daniele (mufc_dan87)
