Here are the Chelsea morning headlines for Friday, April 17.
James backs himself for further improvement
Chelsea youngster Reece James has said he is very happy with how his season has gone and is hoping he can continue to improve after making 11 Premier League starts in the campaign so far.
"Ever since I’ve been back from injury, it’s been going pretty well for me," James told the official club website.
"Obviously in the early days it was tough getting some minutes because I was still coming back from quite a bad injury, but as the season’s gone on I feel like I’ve gradually got better and improved.
"This is the club I want to play for and I have worked very hard to get to this point.
"I always felt that my ability was good enough and I’m just thankful that the gaffer has given me the chance to play."
Chelsea fear Real Madrid will not pay full Hazard fee
With football’s hiatus seeing clubs across Europe forced to cut back on spending, Chelsea have been left to worry whether or not Real Madrid will be able to pay out the full amount of Eden Hazard’s transfer fee.
The Belgian joined the La Liga giants for £90million last summer, with the fee being paid out in instalments.
But according to the Daily Mail , broadcasters have failed to make payments to clubs in Spain with the season now on hold, meaning clubs may be unable to pay the transfer instalments due in June.
According to the report, Hazard’s deal is one of 54 transfers with outstanding payments to be made from a club in France, Spain or Italy to a Premier League side, with the Blues also waiting on the remainder of the money from the transfers of Diego Costa, Juan Cuadrado and Bertrand Traore.
Gabriel "close" to move to "very big club"
Lille president Gerard Lopez has said that star defender Gabriel Magalhaes is closing in on a move to a big club amid interest from Chelsea.
The Brazilian has been linked with a move to Stamford Bridge as well as Everton, Arsenal and a host of other top clubs.
"It's true that he would like to go and try something else out,” Lopez told Sky Sports. "We haven't taken that decision yet, but he's received a number of offers.
"I feel he's closer to one club than others, but nothing's done yet so we'll see.
"I've been talking to a number of very big clubs who, like big companies or big institutions, take situations like this as a potential opportunity to strengthen themselves going forward.”
"We've been working on things, and I'm confident of closing some of those deals in the next couple of weeks."
