Chelsea decide on Hazard replacement

[PHOTO: COURTESY]

Chelsea are drawing up a list of possible replacements for Eden Hazard – and Watford ’s Roberto Pereyra is one of them.

The Blues’ recruitment department have been looking at targets as an insurance policy should the Belgian superstar decide to move on.

Real Madrid remain the most likely to swoop for the 27-year-old playmaker and has yet to agree a new deal, fuelling rumours that the decision-makers will cash in at the end of this season when his contract has just 12 months left to run.

And Chelsea are taking no chances - with Pereyra’s progress now being monitored closely at Stamford Bridge.

Even before the Argentine’s stunning solo effort against Huddersfield Town last week, Pereyra was being talked about. But that strike has only concentrated the minds further.

The former Juventus player was tipped for the top when he arrived in Turin but failed to spark before being shifted to Watford.

He was well-known the Pozzo family who are in charge at Vicarage Road as they had employed the player during his time at Udinese.

Pereyra was enticed to the Hertfordshire club on the basis that this would be an opportunity to put himself in the shop window with a further transfer to a bigger club in the offing – and he is clearly doing that with his sparkling early-season form.