Chelsea Hope N’Golo Kante’s New Club Record £290,000-a-Week Deal Sends Signal to Eden Hazard

August 2, 2018294 views0

Chelsea Hope N’Golo Kante’s New Club Record £290,000-a-Week Deal Sends Signal to Eden Hazard

2018-08-02T22:00:50+01:00

By Bede

Chelsea hope their bid to convince N’Golo Kante to commit his long-term future to the club will help get Eden Hazard to do the same.Kante has been offered a new five-year deal worth a club record £290,000-a-week in order to put an end to Paris Saint Germain’s hopes of signing him.It is believed the midfielder is prepared to put pen to paper and Chelsea feel that sends out a strong message of intent to Hazard, who has been subject of strong interest from Real Madrid.Kante’s new terms will make him the club’s highest-ever paid player at the moment as Hazard is on £200,000-a-week. However they intend to persuade the latter to agree a new deal himself worth a minimum of £300,000-a-week.While they have only bought Jorginho from Napoli so far, Chelsea are optimistic their ability to keep a quality player like Kante will prove to Hazard they still have ambition to compete for major silverware.The Blues are determined to keep the Belgium international at Stamford Bridge and Real Madrid have been scared off by his £200m price tag so far.Standard Sport first revealed back in March that Kante had no interest in joining the French champions and that Chelsea had no intention to sell either.However, that hasn’t stopped PSG from actively pursuing the 27-year-old, who played a major part in France winning the World Cup earlier this month.France team-mate and PSG star Kylian Mbappe openly admitted to approaching the Chelsea midfielder over a move to the Ligue 1 club during the tournament.He said: “I spoke to N’Golo during the World Cup, but not extensive because I know that when you bombard the brain with transfer stuff.“At the end, I left a few words in his pockets, that he would have discovered once he got home (from the World Cup) to properly send a message.”Kante has been on holiday since France clinched the World Cup on July 15th, but Chelsea have already held negotiations with his advisors.The midfielder signed a five-year deal worth £150,000-a-week when he joined from Leicester City for £32m in 2016.But even though he still has three years left to run, Chelsea have offered an extension for another two years, plus a salary that is almost double what he is on now.Earlier this year, Kante gave a strong indication of just how settled he felt in west London, where he has won the title and FA Cup in two seasons.He said: “I am at home. It is my club, I am a Chelsea player. This is my second year at Chelsea. After what happened last season, it was a very good one for us because we got to celebrate winning the title. In the second season, I have got to play in the Champions League.”Hazard is due to report back to training this weekend having been given three weeks off following the World Cup.His camp are currently not optimistic that a switch to the Bernabeu will take place, meaning they are more likely to entertain negotiations with Chelsea.Real Madrid are more optimistic over buying Thibaut Courtois for £35.5m as he has less than 12 months left remaining on his deal and is very unlikely to resume talks over an extension.However, Chelsea won’t let the Belgium keeper go unless they sign a replacement first and they are no closer to doing that despite being interested in a number of goalies including Kasper Schmeichel, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Petr Cech, Jordan Pickford and Jack Butland.Evening Standard