Hazard not interested in Real Madrid speculation

Eden Hazard has insisted that his only focus is on the coming month at Chelsea, despite mounting speculation linking him with a move to Real Madrid. Come the end of the season, the Belgian will have just one year left on his contract at Stamford Bridge, with returning Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane reportedly keen to get the player to the Santiago Bernabeu. However, the 28-year-old is only thinking about finishing the current campaign on a high, with Maurizio Sarri's side chasing a top-four finish and also into the last eight of the Europa League.

When asked in an interview with 'Sky Sports News' about his future, Hazard explained: "I don't want to talk about that to be fair. I'm focused on the last month at Chelsea and then we'll see what happens." Hazard is enjoying his most prolific season in terms of goals since moving to England in 2012, scoring 19 in all competitions so far, and has explained that his fine relationship with Sarri has paid dividends.

April 9, 2019

"Statistically it is my best season. The way he thinks about football is the same way I think about football, so it's easy to understand football," Hazard said. "Okay, sometimes we lost but at the end the way he [Sarri] wants us to play is the way I want Chelsea to play so that's why we have a good relationship."

Some sections of the Chelsea crowd have called for Sarri's sacking in recent weeks but Hazard was quick to defend the Italian, saying the adaption from Antonio Conte's coaching style to the new regime was not easy.

"He [Sarri] is a fantastic manager," the forward said of his current boss at Chelsea. "After Conte it was not easy. He came here with his own ideas on how to play football and I think we did quite well. It's not simple to play the football he wants to play but I think now we start to understand how he wants to play. We still need to adapt a little bit but for a first season we reached the EFL Cup final, we can still be in the top four, we can win a European trophy. We need to see at the end of the season what we can still have and whether it's a good season or not depends on a trophy.

"This manager is different to Conte and different to [Jose] Mourinho and when you have a manager like that it's not easy to change everything. But I think we've shown in the last two to three weeks that we've adapted well with this manager and now we want to finish the season well."