Despite Chelsea's planned contract talks, Real Madrid still hope to sign these two players.

Despite Chelsea's planned new contract talks with Eden Hazard and Thibaut Courtois, the general consensus of opinion amongst the press is that Real Madrid are still planning on signing Hazard as their next Galatico with an additional move for Courtois in the pipeline.

Just recently, before the injury that has forced Hazard to miss the victory over Stoke and subsequent international duty with Belgium, reports had surfaced that Hazard had spoken of his desire to remain at Chelsea and reject the advances of Real with Zinedine Zidane (Hazard's footballing hero) at the helm. However, Real believe that the exciting Belgian would welcome a move.

The interesting point that is worth noting in Real's intention to sign Hazard is that additional rumours are circulating amongst the media that Cristiano Ronaldo has advised Real to not sign him as he believes that they should continue with their attacking trio of Bale, Benzema and Ronaldo. We all are well aware of the influence he has in the Spanish capital and it will be interesting to see if Real do decide to make a move or not.

The report that is featured in The Guardian claims that Real believe that Hazard would be more than compatible with the existing attacking trio and see no problem but, they are more than prepared to offer Chelsea Alvaro Morata and or James Rodriguez in exchange to increase their chances of being able to sign Hazard with Antonio Conte's interest in re-signing Morata, having signed him for Juventus.

I still hope that Hazard re-affirms his commitment to Chelsea and signs a new extended contract to stay here after the impact of Conte in the Premier League. Chelsea MUST do everything they can to convince Hazard to take on the Champions League under Conte next season as we (hopefully) take our place back in the competition. We await developments and hope they are positive.

As for Thibaut Courtois, he is another who has spoken out of reported interest from Real Madrid and has distanced himself from any move this summer. Whether that commitment would be tested with a serious offer from Real is yet to be seen but at present, again under Antonio Conte, the big goalkeeper is talking positively of Chelsea and of our season so far. Many would be of the opinion that Courtois ebbs and flows with how well Chelsea are doing and at any signs of trouble he begins to talk of leaving so we will have to wait and see what happens in the summer.

It seems that one thing is clear, Chelsea will NOT be willing to do business with Real Madrid unless at least Alvaro Morata becomes part of any agreement. As I have stated many times on here, Morata is someone that Antonio Conte has admired for years and it was Conte who managed to prize him away from Madrid in the first place to take him to Juventus. Offered the chance to re-sign him, I am 100% certain that Conte would jump at the chance which is great news as I really, really rate the Spanish striker.

Expect these rumours/reports to continue between now and the summer. If Chelsea are able to get a deal done for Morata to keep hold of Hazard and Courtois, that would be a fantastic piece of business after the club failing to meet Conte's reported expectations last summer.