In Hindsight, Was Choosing Hazard Over Neymar a Good Choice?

This is completely hypothetical.

It is not a secret we were after Neymar before he moved to Barca. After he rejected us we bought Eden Hazard, who has gone on to become a very important part of our team. Neymar has since moved to Barca, where he has become very important of Barca and Brazil.

Both players are improving and showing why they cost so much, which is why I ask you, did we make the right call in getting Hazard and not Neymar? Should we have tried to get both or did we make a mistake?

Some Stats from this season

Hazard : Neymar
Games: 29 : 21
Goals: 11 : 17
Assists: 10 : 5
KeyPass*: 2.5 : 1.2
Pass%: 86.9 : 77.9
Dribbles*: 5.3 : 2.4
Fouled*: 3.2 : 3.4

* Per Games

The stats are rather interesting, Neymar has more goals but Eden is more involved in creativity.

Curious to know what you guys think.

Neymar didn't come from Europe he'd prob be on loan in the championship atm tbh

And don't forget that neymar probably cost more than Bale and CR (we'll never know the true fee becaue Barca fudged their books) plus Neymars dad 'works' as a barca scout on a six+ figure salary.

Kick wrote:I ask you, did we make the right call in getting Hazard and not Neymar?

Kick wrote: we were after Neymar before he moved to Barca. After he rejected us we bought Eden Hazard

Don't worry your pretty little head too much, as it sounds like you really didn't have that much of a choice

Funny enough, we've wondered the same after the club preferred to get Götze over Neymar who reportedly was Pep's wish (or so they say).

I'd say Neymar is as of now the superior player to both, but you shouldn't forget the prize tag and extra baggage with which his transfer came.
I for one am pretty sure I would not want my club to have to be involved in that sort of corrupt entanglements.

On the other hand, our president went to jail anyway, so maybe it wouln't have made a difference

I think we could have gotten him, Hans, he rejected our offer, doesn't mean he'd completely reject us.

The Neymar baggage would be worth it if it was affordable. Which, clearly it must be otherwise Barca wouldn't be doing it.

I think that it was always going to be either Real or Barca for Neymar.
To persuade him to join us we had to pay a lot more than what Barca already did, which is a lot and like fatman said it was a very shady move so his true cost is up there with Bale and CR7 and I'm not sure if it was worth it considering that we got a slightly inferior Hazard for a lot less.

Yea, he's been very inconsistent, but so are attacking players. How many goalscoring chances you see in a match usually? You don't see a goalscoring chance in every possession and in every attack, you see 6/7, so that's Hazard. You don't always see him doing anything worth of note except for the moments where he disrupts the opposition's defense and create a goalscoring chance.

So everyone is saying we made the right call?

In hindsight it was right to choose Hazard for 30M instead of Neymar for 70/80

However, in hindsight it was wrong to spend 80M for Schuerrle, Willian, Salah, Moses and not 80M for Neymar.

Fair enough.

I wouldn't trade the two. Neymeh's probably had more to show for his excellence by way of production but Hazard's not done to shabbily himself. Scored or assisted 53 goals in 90 League appearances to date. That's quite good.

I think what everyone agrees on is that neymar is a comfortably superior player to hazard but that chelsea made the right choice to sign hazard based on his price tag of 30M as opposed to the 85-90M for Neymar at the time. But if you ask me, i'd say hazard hasn't done too badly either, but then again, i think that 90% of big clubs would sign Neymar for 60M as against signing hazard for 30M if the opportunity were to present itself today.
Wether die hard chelsea fans would want to admit it is a different matter altogether, for obvious reasons anyway and that i can understand.

Bankz wrote:I think what everyone agrees on is that neymar is a comfortably superior player to hazard but that chelsea made the right choice to sign hazard based on his price tag of 30M as opposed to the 85-90M for Neymar at the time. But if you ask me, i'd say hazard hasn't done too badly either, but then again, i think that 90% of big clubs would sign Neymar for 60M as against signing hazard for 30M if the opportunity were to present itself today.
Wether die hard chelsea fans would want to admit it is a different matter altogether, for obvious reasons anyway and that i can understand.

Gil wrote:

Bankz wrote:I think what everyone agrees on is that neymar is a comfortably superior player to hazard but that chelsea made the right choice to sign hazard based on his price tag of 30M as opposed to the 85-90M for Neymar at the time. But if you ask me, i'd say hazard hasn't done too badly either, but then again, i think that 90% of big clubs would sign Neymar for 60M as against signing hazard for 30M if the opportunity were to present itself today.
Wether die hard chelsea fans would want to admit it is a different matter altogether, for obvious reasons anyway and that i can understand.

Great post, you shut him up.
The Chelsea section needs more posters like you, stick around.