Jose Mourinho has revealed that Eden Hazard is ‘awful’ in training and ‘doesn’t work much’.
The pair worked together at Chelsea between 2013 and 2015 and the SunSport columnist told talkSPORT: “The truth is what you see from him, he is an amazing player with awful training.
“You can only imagine what he could be with a super professional attitude in training.
“In the end, he is an amazing kid, he is an incredible family man, he looks like he doesn’t belong to this generation of players, he’s very quiet and is totally focused on family, on kids, on parents, on a very quiet life.
“But he gets onto the pitch every morning and… he doesn’t work much.
“When he gets onto the pitch you don’t see the reflection of a week of work, you just see a reflection of his talent.”
Neymar broke down in tears after taking another step towards Pele’s Brazil goal record in a scintillating Copa America victory over Peru.
The all-time great’s tally of 77 is just nine away for the Paris Saint-Germain star following Thursday night’s 4-0 win.
He stated: “It’s moving for me, I’ve been through a lot these last two years. These numbers are nothing more than my joy of playing for Brazil, representing my country, my family.
“We’re all going through a very atypical moment, a very hard moment in Brazil and elsewhere.
“To be a role model for someone, to make people happy, it gives me joy. I love the story that I’m writing here, I want my family and friends to be proud.
“I hope everyone who loves this game are proud of me, because these numbers don’t really mean anything, only the pride of representing Brazil.”
Pele, 80, took to Instagram to call on Neymar to do his country proud by taking the record.
He wrote: “Every time I see this boy, he is smiling.
“It’s impossible not to smile back. It is contagious. I, like all Brazilians, am always happy when I see him playing soccer.
“Today, he took another step towards my goalscoring record for the Selecao. And I’m rooting for him to get there, with the same joy I’ve had since I saw him play for the first time.”
Copa America hosts Brazil took the lead after only 12 minutes as Neymar delivered a cross from the left flank that was headed clear.
But Manchester City ace Gabriel Jesus returned the ball to the penalty area where Alex Sandro was left alone to fire it into the back of the net.
The Brazilians thought they would double their lead from the penalty spot on 61 minutes but VAR ruled that Neymar had gone down on his own while under pressure from Renato Tapia.
But that didn’t matter as the 29-year-old got his goal anyway in the 68th minute with a stunning long-range shot after a pass by Fred caught Peru’s backline off guard.
Tite’s men made it three just a minute before full-time when Neymar passed to Richarlison on his left and the Everton ace delivered a through ball for Everton Ribeiro to finish off a beautiful move.
And Richarlison sealed another key win in the third minute of stoppage time when Neymar produced an incredible through ball to Roberto Firmino, but the Liverpool star was denied by Pedro Gallese.
Tottenham’s search for manager has suffered setback as the London club have have decided to abandon their pursuit of Gennaro Gattuso.
The club’s managerial search took a surprise twist on Thursday when they aborted their attempts to appoint former Roma boss Paulo Fonseca at the last minute and opened talks with Gattuso.
However, Spurs have now ruled the Italian out of the race after holding brief talks with him.
Fonseca had agreed to join Spurs and begun discussions with new managing director of football Fabio Paratici about their plans for the squad and the makeup of his coaching staff.
However, with the confirmation of Fonseca’s appointment seemingly imminent, Spurs chose to walk away.
Spurs insisted financial issues were not behind their change of heart and it was simply a call to go in a different direction made by the club’s hierarchy.
The sudden availability of Gattuso was believed to be one factor in Spurs’s decision after he walked away from his new job with Fiorentina on Thursday after just 23 days in the post.
Chelsea defender Thiago Silva has been mentioned as the reason for Paris Saint-Germain’s desperation to sign free agent Sergio Ramos.
PSG bitterly felt the loss of experienced defender Silva after the Brazilian joined Chelsea on a free before this season, and it’s thought Ramos could fill that void.
Ramos has therefore been been offered the opportunity to join Paris Saint-Germain this summer.
Following the confirmation of the veteran defender’s departure, the questions quickly became about who is going to sign Ramos, a 35-year-old with large wages who has missed 35 games through injury across all competitions this season.
But it seems there may already be an option on the table with Diario AS claiming French giants PSG have already reached out to Ramos to find out whether he is interested in playing in Ligue 1.
The report claims the offer is ‘one of the best’ options available to Ramos currently, and that the Spain international may be inclined to make the move to Paris due to the relationships he already has with a number of players, including Kaylor Navas, Angel Di Maria and others.
It’s also reported that Ramos ‘likes the idea’ of working under PSG boss Mauricio Pochettino, who has been regularly linked with Real Madrid in the past, while also being Spanish-speaking.
Negotiations between Paulo Fonseca and Tottenham collapsed and Spurs are now in talks with Gennaro Gattuso, according to reports.
The last 24 hours have been quite intense for Gattuso, a 2006 Italy World Cup winner, who parted ways with Fiorentina just 23 days after having being announced La Viola coach.
Several reports in Italy, as cited by Football Italia, state that Gattuso and Fiorentina had disagreements over the club’s summer transfer strategies.
Gattuso’s agent Jorge Mendes was massively involved in the dispute as the Tuscans were in talks to sign some of his clients but were reportedly unwilling to match the agent’s economic demands in terms of commissions.
Tottenham are now negotiating with the Italian tactician after that talks with former Roma coach Paulo Fonseca collapsed.
Sky Sport Italia journalist Gianluca Di Marzio claims the Portuguese coach won’t be appointed Tottenham coach due to ‘tax reasons’, meaning Gattuso is now the leading candidate to take over in North London.
Tottenham appointed former Juventus director Fabio Paratici as their new managing director last week.
Paratici is on very good terms with Mendes having signed both Joao Cancelo and Cristiano Ronaldo during his time in Turin.
Deals for Jude Bellingham and Erling Haaland could intertwine in a busy summer for Chelsea, according to reports.
The Blues are long-term admirers of the Borussia Dortmund pair and tried to sign Bellingham, 17, before he moved to Germany.
That interest has not gone away following his quick adaptation to playing for one of the Bundesliga’s top clubs.
But the Blues will have to tread carefully in dealing with Dortmund, in the knowledge that they also hold the key to the future of Haaland.
As reported by Goal, Chelsea hope a good relationship can be struck up with the German team.
If they can find a mutually-beneficial route to signing Haaland, there is said to be optimism that Borussia will be more open to doing a deal for Bellingham further down the road.
Diego Costa has been offered a £1.3million signing-on bonus to join Beskitas ahead of Benfica and Brazilian clubs.
That’s the claim from Turkey as former Chelsea striker Costa, 32, seeks a new club after Atletico Madrid released him in January.
Fanatik say Turkish giants Besiktas have lined up a one-year contract worth around £2.15m – £40,000 a week – following talks with Costa’s agent Joel Silva.
That would still be a huge cut in wages from his recent deals.
And the suggestion is Silva is confident of negotiating a compromise.
Besiktas’ rising interest comes days after reports Costa was eager to join Portuguese side Benfica.
AS also names Atletico Mineiro, Sao Paulo and Palmeiras from Costa’s native Brazil are keen to sign him.
Manchester United target Sergio Ramos claims he wanted to stay at Real Madrid – but didn’t sign his contract extension in time.
A brutally honest Ramos has admitted he waited too long to accept Real Madrid’s contract offer because by the time he had decided he wanted to stay at the club, the deal had been taken off the table.
Ramos’s place at Madrid has already been taken with David Alaba arriving on a free from Bayern Munich.
Speaking to the Spanish press, Ramos said: “The offer was accepted but it had a use-by date.
“They informed us a week ago that the offer had run-out. I don’t know why it had an expiry date.
“Maybe I interpreted it wrongly or I didn’t understand it but no one told me.”
Ramos regretted that Real Madrid president Florentino Perez was not in attendance at his last press conference at the club.
There was also the surprising admission that there is no new destination lined-up.
“There has been the occasional call from interested clubs,” he said. “We will start the search now.”
He also admitted that Sevilla was for the moment “not on option”.
Asked why he had not spoken earlier including to respond to claims he was a ‘pesetero’ (money grabber) he said: ‘It didn’t seem right to me to come out and talk while the club were still competing.’
It came after Ramos broke down in tears delivering a farewell speech in front of his family at the Bernabeu.
“This is a see you soon more than a goodbye,” said Ramos. “Sooner or later I will be back. And I will always keep Madrid in my heart.”
But Ramos later said in his final press conference that he would have gone back and accepted the one-year contract extension with a pay reduction Real offered him – only to find it had expired.
“I never wanted to leave Real Madrid, I always wanted to stay here,’ Ramos said.
“In the last few months the club made me an offer of one year, with a pay cut.
“I want to highlight that money has never been a problem, the president knows that.
“It wasn’t a financial problem. They offered me one year, I wanted two. I wanted calm and continuity for my family…
“In the latest conversations, I accepted the offer with a pay cut, and I was told there was no longer an offer.
“I was told that despite having given the OK to the proposal, it had an expiry date and I didn’t realise… It surprised me.
“It’s true that it was communicated to me just a week ago, via my agent, that the offer had expired without us knowing.
“Nobody had given us an ultimatum… I thought there was a possibility to accept the last offer they had put on the table… They’re questions I can’t answer. The club has its priorities.”
Christian Eriksen will be fitted with a heart-starter device following his cardiac arrest at the European Championships.
The Inter Milan playmaker collapsed on the pitch in Denmark’s opening game against Finland before being rushed to hospital. Their team doctor Morten Boesen has now confirmed in a statement that Eriksen will be fitted with a Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator.
Boesen said: “After Christian has been through different heart examinations it has been decided that he should have an ICD (heart starter).
“This device is necessary after a cardiac attack due to rhythm disturbances.
“Christian has accepted the solution and the plan has moreover been confirmed by specialists nationally and internationally who all recommend the same treatment.
“We encourage everybody to give Christian and his family peace and privacy the following time.”
