Wednesday, May 1, 2024

Mikel Arteta reveals where Kai Havertz will play at Arsenal after completing £65m deal

Kai Havertz has now officially joined from Chelsea on a long-term contract.

The German international is only 24 years old, but he’s already proven himself at both club and international level. With 35 caps for Germany, scoring 13 goals in the process.

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Before coming to the Premier League, Havertz was impressing the world at Bayer Leverkusen. He’s a product of their academy and signed his first pro contract there in 2016. During his time at Leverkusen, he made a whopping 150 appearances, scoring 46 goals and assisting 31 times. Fun fact: he became their youngest debutant ever in the Bundesliga at just 17 years and 126 days old.

In 2020, he made the jump to the Premier League and joined Chelsea. Over the course of three seasons, he played 139 games, netting 32 goals and providing 15 assists. You might remember him scoring the only goal in Chelsea’s win over Manchester City in the 2021 UEFA Champions League Final. His performances have been mixed though, with him predominantly playing in the number 9 role. Speculation and debate has been rife about where he will play for Arsenal, boss Mikel Arteta now appears to have put that debate to bed.

Edu, our Sporting Director, couldn’t hide his excitement about the deal. He praised everyone involved for their hard work in getting Kai to the club. He mentioned how Kai’s arrival will boost our attacking prowess and add versatility to our squad. It’s all about building a young and talented core at Arsenal, and Kai’s signing is a big step in that direction.

And let’s not forget what Arteta had to say about the new man. According to him, Kai is a top-quality player with great versatility and intelligence. He’s thrilled to have him on board, knowing that Kai will bring strength and variety to our midfield.

“Kai is a player of top quality. He has great versatility and is an intelligent player. He will bring a huge amount of extra strength to our midfield and variety to our play.
“We welcome Kai and his family to Arsenal Football Club and we are all excited to start working with him when we start pre-season training soon.”
These quotes appear to suggest Kai will be coming in as a midfielder, possibly to replace Granit Xhaka who is likely to depart to Germany. It’s also possible that Martin Odegaard shifts into Xhaka’s role, allowing Havertz to play in his favoured right half space, alongside Bukayo Saka.
Havertz also had his say on the move, telling Arsenal.com: “It’s super exciting for me to be joining this amazing club and to be part of the Arsenal family. This club has such a big history, and I hope we can achieve lots of things.
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“The mentality in the Arsenal squad is very high and you can feel that. That was one of the reasons why it has been so hard to play against Arsenal recently.
“The aim is to win trophies and I’m going to give everything to do that for the supporters and everyone at the club. I’m now looking forward to meeting all the players and the staff when we come back for pre-season.”

 

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