Morning all.
It seems Mikel Arteta has got his man. At least one of them anyway as it looks like Kai Havertz is heading to north London after Arsenal and Chelsea agreed a fee. £65 million is the amount quoted by Sky Sports which is a whole lot of money. But he’s young and far from reaching his peak footballing years so hopefully Arsenal fans will get to see him improve on his Chelsea performances. Mikel Arteta clearly thinks he’s a great player just waiting to explode.
World Of Football has compiled a short video of his best bits.
Sky Sports also report that positive negotiations continue between Arsenal and West Ham over midfielder over Declan Rice. The two clubs are working on both the fee and payment structure of the deal after Arsenal had a second bid rejected yesterday.
Man City and Man Utd are reported to be keeping an eye the Rice talks with the latter considering including two players in any offer they might make, McTominay and Maguire. I’m sure David Moyes would be thrilled to have both of those players in his squad. Not! One’s an old has been and the other, without a Utd kit on for protection, is likely to come under more scrutiny by the officials. If he wants a central defender, Rob Holding would be a far better option in my opinion. Anyway, hopefully Chelsea will keep Utd busy with Mount for a few more days/weeks.
One player we won’t be signing though is Ilkay Gundogan as he’s signed for Barcelona today.
Back to Havertz.
Positionally, it doesn’t look like he’s excelled so far in his career. His marking grades don’t stand out either, certainly not in a positive way anyway and his tackling stats read about as well as Fabio Vieira’s might if he was being judged after his one season in the Premier League. Havertz has been pretty average in a dysfunctional Chelsea setup I think but then one could say that about any Chelsea player after watching their performances last season.
Havertz will be labelled a Chelsea flop but then so was Mo Salah and Kevin de Bruyne but once they moved on, they excelled. Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry were ‘flops’ before they walked through Arsenal’s doors. All it takes sometimes is a change of club, a change of manager, coaching staff and a happier environment.
One thing Havertz will give the team should he arrive is height on corners and other set-pieces both in attack and defensively. In our general attacking play too.
Thomas Partey appears to be on his way out of the club if the back pages are to be believed. An offer from a Saudi club would probably be better for Arsenal but the player might not fancy joining a retirement home just yet. Partey is a fantastic player in my opinion and a big loss to Arsenal should he leave but the problem with him is his fitness over a ten month campaign. Jorginho is reported by the Evening Standard, to be eager to stay at Arsenal. Personally I think one of the two needs to stay, especially if Granit Xhaka departs too. It’s a risk I think to make many changes at one time in what I believe is one of the most important areas of the pitch.
Another player who could be on his way out is Eddie Nketiah as according to reports on NN, Arsenal are prepared to listen to offers for him. I guess if he goes, Flo Balogun stays.
Reports from either Sky Sports, David Ornstein or Romano Fabrizio report that positive talks for Rice, Havertz, Timber and Lavia are ongoing with the selling club keen to get a deal over the line. Still, until any deal is over the line, I’m not banking on any one of them becoming an Arsenal player.
Let’s see what today brings.
Catch up later.
Morning Rico and all.
If it’s true 65 Mill for Kai Havertz, Chelsea will be praying he is no good as they paid around 62 mill for him. Let’s hope we get the last laugh.
Morning Geoff. My glass is half full re Havertz…
The video shows only his best bits I know but there’s potential in him.
Nobody drags out a transfer quite like Arsenal, so much so that by the time the player is announced of AFC.com most of us are bored to death with the story.
Ah well, as long as they get the business done I suppose…
If West Ham were more reasonable, we’d have Rice in the bag by now. How can they expect £100m odd for Rice when Chelsea want £60m for Mount? For £100m we might get Caicedo
The transfer window in the rest of Europe doesn’t open until Saturday week (July 1st) – I suspect that a few outgoings and incomings are on hold until then.
Interesting to see the increase in transfers between Premier League clubs which given the lack of available funds in the rest of football (Saudi excepted) is understandable…
Chelsea have now parted company with eleven players, that’s quite a turnover and a big saving in salaries even if most of them were out on loan. With Havertz, Mount and Kovacic in the pipeline that figure is set to rise over the next week.
I’m surprised though as PL players transfer fees are inflated imo, especially English players.
Havertz cost the chavs the guts of £90 odd million when purchased.A lot more than the £60 million bandied about.
Pete, only Chelsea know how much they paid, as there are several sites stating anything from 60 to 70 up to 90 mill. Either way If we do get Havertz, at least he knows what to expect in the premier league.
Hello Rico and team, Kai Havertz’s deal quite exciting for me. So undermined/ or underutilised at Chelsea, as a result he’s lived up to his billing. I’m optimistic he’ll be a big success at the Emirates.
Looks like City are going for Rice after losing Gundogan. They’ll beat any offer we make I’m sure.
Hi Kyalo. Good job someone is excited. 😂
@Rico, I am quite please with this Kai Havertz deal. However quite disappointed that we’re dragging our feet with the Declan Rice deal😢
Don’t think it’s us Kyalo, it’s West Ham. They clearly want a bidding war and City etc to pay more than we’ve offered.
Partey to Juventus is doing the rounds
I recon Party will go, as the offers will be too good to turn down.
I still say play West Ham at their own game, and walk away from the deal and look else were.
Reports that Juventus hope to get Party for 20 million pounds but I thought he would be worth more like 30 million.
What Juventus want and what they get are two different things. Edu can hone his bargaining skills as a seller for once.
When does the transfer window shut? Zzzzzz
The money we’d get offered from Juventus for Thomas Partey is certain to be considerably less than what we’d get from the Saudi League and we certainly don’t owe Juve any favours after they nicked Vlahovic from under our noses.
Man City paid Chelsea £30m for Kovacic but apparently Partey is worth what?
I’ve seen his fee to Juve stated as €20m, which in real money is just over £17m, compare that with the sums on offer from the Saudis- if true?
For me, Juve can go whistle for £17m, but this is Arsenal selling an asset in action and it’s not very encouraging is it? Given the sums on offer and even taking into consideration his injury record I’d be more inclined to say ‘Thomas you’re staying mate’…
Always seems to be a different rule for Arsenal players.
I wonder what the real story is about Kieran Tierney, one minute we are selling him, now reports say Arteta has changed his mind and wants to keep him.
According to the sun Eddie Nketiah is not happy about Kai Havertz joining, if this is true, I wonder if West Ham would be interested in cash plus Nketiah for Rice
Ow wouldn’t that be a sweet irony, West Ham interested in Eddie Nketiah?
I’m sure that Edu would be up for a deal of that nature,
Let’s say £50m paid over the first two years of his contract….
Rico, as afanbase we have a habit of undervaluing our own players, the media pick up on that and do the same.
I’ve seen Rob Holding touted as worth between £5m and £8m, but if he played for Liverpool or Chelsea your looking at a player worth £20m to £25m
I’m totally fed up with the whole transfer window circus. Every Tom, Dick and Harry is churning out the same unverified garbage. I shall no longer waste time even reading the daily flood of tripe masquerading as “transfer news”.
Kev, I agree with you Holding worth between 5m to 8mill is a joke,
So according to reports Man C want Rice, but only if they can pay 75M now and the rest over 2 to 3 years.
It sounds like they are trying to push the FFP rules again.
I’m sure that doesn’t help Kev but, I think our transfer history of letting players go for cheap or for has contributed too. We as a club have always been poor at selling players. We’ve been too soft, look at the deal we did for Martinez for example, Alexis Sanchez and further back, Ashley Cole.
Look at right now, a 30 year old Harry Maguire is valued at €20 million by TransferMarket yet Rob Holding is €8 million. No way would I personally opt for Maguire out of the two.
Good morning Rico, a very early start for you.. 😉
No signings yet.
Morning Cicero, warm weather and all that. 😆
I could do with a nice holiday, even a long weekend somewhere would be nice.
Still no confirmation of the signing of Havertz… 😴
Here’s a suggestion Kev, a long sandy beach, spectacular cliffs California! No transatlantic flights, no tourist visa required no scrutiny by Homeland Security just the peace and tranquillity of good old Norfolk and only a couple of miles north of Great Yarmouth. 😎
Or Dorset, I’m off there very soon. The Jurassic Coastline is pretty good too.
New post up.
Morning Cicero