West Ham coach Kevin
Nolan is prepared to hand
Eden Hazard a trial at the
Premier League club, de
–
spite the Belgian announc
–
ing his retirement from pro
–
fessional football.
Hazard called time on
his career on Tuesday, three
months shy of his 33rd birth
–
day. He left his final club
Real Madrid over the sum
– mer, and was the subject of
reported interest from clubs
in several countries before
deciding to call it quits.
Nolan came up against
Hazard on multiple occa
– sions during the forward’s
prime years at Chelsea, including in the 2014-15
season when the ex-Bolton
man captained West Ham in
a pair of defeats against the
Blues. One of those, at Up
–
ton Park, saw Hazard score
the only goal of the game
for the eventual title win
–
ners, and Nolan believes his
former rival still has more to
give.
“I’d have the Hazard of
Chelsea at West Ham, yeah,”
Nolan told talkSPORT. “I’m
sure if he wanted to come
and trial we’d, I mean, I’d
certainly be willing to. I
don’t know about the gaffer
[David Moyes]. But I’d certainly want to trial him!”
“Some of the best years
in the Premier League, he’s
been part of and some of
the best goals. It’s sad that at
32 he’s decided to bow out
in all honesty because I be
– lieve someone of his calibre
of play could play at the top
level for plenty more years.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised
if we got a little bit of a re
–
verse on that in the next six
months to a year,” Nolan
added. The 41-year-old
made comparisons with Paul
Scholes, who announced his
retirement before returning
to help Manchester United
win the Premier League in
the 2012-13 season.”