Mykhailo Mudryk told he can emulate Eden Hazard at Chelsea as Gus Poyet calls for 'patience' with £89m winger

• Hazard was a phenomenon at Chelsea
• Mudryk tipped to emulate the Belgian
• Poyet calls for patience with the winger

WHAT HAPPENED? During Hazard's seven-year at Stamford Bridge, he scored 110 goals and provided 92 assists in 352 appearances, which prompted Real Madrid to pay €100 million (£88m/$112m) for the Belgian in the summer of 2019.

The Blues have paid a similar amount for the Ukrainian attacker Mudryk, but he has failed to score in his first eight appearances for the club and is yet to adjust to the demands of English football. However, Poyet believes that the former Shakhtar Donetsk star has the potential to follow in Hazard's footsteps and has urged the fans to be patient with him.

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WHAT THEY SAID: The former Chelsea midfielder told Standard Sport: "Explosive, direct, very, very quick. The job Mudryk will have in the future is what Eden Hazard did at Chelsea — he’s that type of player and the potential is there. Ninety-nine per cent of the time, you don’t sign that quantity of players in January. That was the biggest surprise for me. If we analyse the players they bought, there is definitely a plan. They are players that have been signed for the future. The new message is patience."

THE BIGGER PICTURE: Chelsea showed the door to Graham Potter after a dismal spell where they won just 12 out of 31 matches, with Bruno Saltor taking over as the interim manager while the club searches for a permanent successor. Poyet has warned that for an ambitious club like Chelsea, failure to qualify for the Champions League would be a disaster, as their new boss will have a huge task on their hands to overturn an 11-point deficit to fourth-placed Tottenham.

"For a team like Chelsea, I don’t believe in transition years. When they go a year without winning a trophy, it doesn’t matter what they did the year before. No trophy and no Champions League football would be a very bad season for Chelsea. Every time you aim for less than that, you are not part of a winning mentality," he added.

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WHAT NEXT? The Blues will be back in action against Wolves on Saturday in the Premier League.