Former Chelsea star Eden Hazard has revealed he had conversations with Como boss Cesc Fabregas in the summer over a potential return to Chelsea.
Hazard, who spent seven years at Stamford Bridge, played alongside Fabregas between 2014 and 2019 as the pair won five major honours together with the Blues.
Following his departure for Real Madrid three years ago, Hazard decided to hang up his boots while Fabregas, whose professional career ended in 2023, went into management.
After originally taking charge of Como's youth teams, Fabregas was appointed as the club's manager in July 2024 after helping them to promotion from Serie B to the top flight.
In his first full season in charge, Fabregas guided Como to 10th, while in 2025-26, his team sit sixth and are within just four points of the Champions League places.
And despite Chelsea recently replacing Enzo Maresca with Liam Rosenior, Hazard feels it is only a matter of time before Fabregas returns to the Blues to manage the club.
"I'll be honest, in the summer we talked a bit. I told him he was one of the best midfielders in history and that he's destined to become one of the best coaches as well," he said.
"I explained to him that the time has come for him to return to Chelsea, and he joked about it, but I really believe it. He loves football and knows everything about this spot.
"I'm a Chelsea fan, and I want the best for the club. That's why I dream of seeing Cesc on their bench, while I'll be staying in the stands behind him, enjoying the show."
Since Fabregas was appointed, only Bologna (89), Napoli (92), Juventus (97), AC Milan (99), Atalanta (108) and Inter (131) have scored more Serie A goals than Como (86).
Fabregas adopts a passing-based philosophy, with his team completing 25,747 successful passes in the top flight in that same time frame. That total can only be bettered by Napoli (26,617), Juventus (27,913) and Inter (29,928).
But his team have also proved they are a threat in attack, though they were sensationally thwarted by Atalanta in their goalless draw with them in Serie A last weekend.
Indeed, since Opta started collecting this type of data (2010-11), Como (5.24 xG against Atalanta) recorded the second-highest value of expected goals during a Serie A match between teams that have not scored a goal.