McDermott: Reading wanted Hazard before Chelsea... but we had no chance!

Just warming up: Eden Hazard in training

Brian McDermott doesn’t need anybody to tell him about the mercurial talents of Eden Hazard —he found them for himself on a dark, cold November night nearly six years ago.
Reading’s manager was working as the club’s chief scout and used to take himself off on the Channel ferry for weekend jaunts to France — about as near as the Madejski Stadium budget then got to a continental network.
‘I would go to three games over the weekend starting on Friday night and one of them on this particular trip was at Lille,’ he recalled.
‘Hazard was just playing his first games in the team. He was still only 16, I think. I hadn’t gone there to see him, just to take in the fixture, but he stood out within minutes like the proverbial sore thumb.

 

‘He could just go down the side of people — and on either side — and he had such great, quick feet.

‘I earned my living then by wandering in search of players, and I might have asked about him, but no way was he available. I remember discovering Marouane Fellaini when he was still a teenager, too, and being quoted £7million.

Debut to remember: Hazard cut Wigan to shreds on his Premier League bow

‘These guys know when they have a special talent on their hands — you can’t turn up at a place like Lille and just go, “We’ll take your best player”. It just doesn’t happen.’

 

Fast forward to 2012 and it is Chelsea who have finally prised away the 21-year-old, already capped 29 times by Belgium, and been forced to cough up £32m for the privilege.

McDermott will get a close-up of exactly how the talent he spotted — but couldn’t afford — has matured when he takes Reading to Stamford Bridge on Wednesday.
He said: ‘Everyone in Europe knew what a talent he was going to be. How old is he? Just 21? He’s incredible.

Eye for talent: Reading manager Brian McDermott (right) scouted Hazard

‘I went to see Chelsea’s game at Wigan on Sunday and he was terrific. Not just him but also Juan Mata, you saw the little interplays between the two of them — and then they could bring on Oscar too.
‘It seems like he’s a good lad and is going to handle the physicality of the League no problem. I gather he’s said he isn’t frightened of being kicked out of the Premier League, but you can’t do that now anyway.
‘Going back to when I played you could, but in this day and age, thank God, there isn’t a place for it. Make one tackle now and you get booked. In a way that’s why the flair players thrive and that’s a good thing.
‘But don’t think we don’t go there thinking we can win. We’ll have a way of playing.
‘I’m not going to give my team away, but we have always at Reading tried to take each game on its merits and try to do the best for our team. We will have a plan, we do that for everybody.’