Why Arsenal are ready to spend £65m to signal Kai Havertz this summer season
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t Chelsea, Kai Havertz by no means actually lived as much as expectations after his £71million transfer to Stamford Bridge in 2020 — however Mikel Arteta believes he can unlock his potential at Arsenal.
The Gunners are ready to spend £65m on the Germany international and make him the second-most costly participant of their historical past. That underlines the assumption Arteta has in a participant he feels can have a transformative impact on his workforce.
Arteta has taken Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli to new heights, has helped Martin Odegaard fulfil his potential and now he’ll look to do the identical with Havertz. The 24-year-old will show a invaluable weapon for Arteta in assault, and an enormous attraction forArsenal of their transfer for him is that he strengthens them in quite a few positions.
Havertz is ready to play anyplace throughout the front-three, whereas he may also function as a No10 or No8.
At Chelsea, the place he did rating the winner within the 2021 Champions League Final, he was typically used as a central striker, which is his least-preferred place.
A transfer to Arsenal will swimsuit him, as a result of he’ll grow to be a part of a fluid system.
Gabriel Jesus, for instance, led the road this season, however he would frequently drift out left and permit Martinelli to come back inside.
Havertz is precisely the sort of participant Arteta likes to work with. He is technically wonderful, tactically astute and works arduous off the ball. He is at his greatest when working in pockets of house between the opposition midfield and defence, one thing Arteta likes, because it helps Arsenal open up groups who defend deep.
“I don’t have a favourite position,” Havertz stated final 12 months. “I know I’m not a real No9, just waiting in the box and doing headers. I want to be influential in the game, get the ball, drop sometimes into midfield and start attacks there.”
Havertz’s versatility will give Arsenal extra tactical flexibility, which was a difficulty for them as they light within the title race final season.
Manchester City stormed forward of the Gunners enjoying a 3-2-4-1 formation, and the arrival of Havertz means Arteta may replicate that system if he needs.
Indeed, the concept of an attacking quartet of Martinelli, Havertz, Odegaard and Saka enjoying behind Jesus will actually excite followers. A No10 or second striker function is the place earlier coaches have thought Havertz would function.
He performed there for Bayer Leverkusen in his ultimate two seasons, scoring 38 Bundesliga objectives earlier than Chelsea signed him.
“I see a Dennis Bergkamp, Robin van Persie, Dimitar Berbatov kind of player,” stated former Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel.
Thomas Tuchel in contrast Havertz to Gunners legend Dennis Bergkamp
/ AFP by way of Getty Images“He can play in the half-position, because he has good runs, but he also feels free from the No9 and creates overloads to one side and he arrives in the six-yard box. He has a good timing for it.”
The comparisons to Bergkamp will excite Arsenal followers essentially the most and there are similarities between them, not least with the circumstances by which they joined the Gunners.
Bergkamp arrived in 1995 following an detached spell in Inter Milan, however he thrived in north London after being given the liberty to precise himself.
A mercurial expertise like Havertz seems like he wants the identical setting and Arsenal imagine they might help him shine.
Havertz’s versatility will give Arsenal extra tactical flexibility, which was a difficulty for them as they light within the title race final season.
He is becoming a member of a younger, hungry squad that, like him, have some extent to show after lacking out on the title to City.
There shall be stress on Havertz to ship, however he ought to already be ready for that after his enormous transfer to Chelsea three summers in the past. Back then, many felt his subsequent vacation spot is likely to be Bayern Munich or Real Madrid.
Instead, it’s Arsenal, in one of the crucial eye-catching strikes of the summer season.