Arsenal Transfer News: Lille Confirm Eden Hazard Price

Lille are prepared to sell their young Belgian playmaker Eden Hazard according to the French clubs President, Michel Seydoux, but the potential suitors will have to cough up an eye-watering sum of €50m [£43 million].

It is one hell of a tease for all who have taken an interest in the exciting midfielder described as the “outstanding player” in Europe with “immense talent.” One of thos admirers is the Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger, but having been quoted such a massive price for the player, his interest must surely now just be just a pipe dream. The Lille President crushed Wenger’s hopes in just a few words:

“The price is €50m and this is clear in advance. We are at a time when the club is having a real discussion about what to do but it will depend on many factors. First our economic potential and then it depends on the proposals we receive. Nobody is unsellable. You would be able to look for solutions in the market with the money we’d receive.”

It is a staggering amount of money to pay for the 20 year-old who has won Ligue 1’s Player of the year once already, and the Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year twice already in his five years in France. Arsenal have made no secret of their interest in the player, with Wenger saying in 2010 that: “We are following him (Hazard). Personally I think he has real talent and the level needed to play at Arsenal.”

Current Arsenal striker and former team mate of Hazard, Gervinho meanwhile, has described his former colleague as one with “tremendous qualities,” however it looks as if those qualities will be put to use in France for a little while longer until a club stumps up the astonishing sum of money that Lille are demanding – it won’t be Arsenal.