UnexpectedGuest

Has been some time since I posted on here but I just wanted to congratulate Chelsea fans and particularly Kai on this win. I am soooo happy for him, the way he got criticized all season and then he does this in a CL final, the stuff of dreams. Immensely proud that a player from our academy has come so far and I am sure this will give him even more confidence for the next years to come. All Leverkusen fans I am in contact with are ecstatic over last night. Kai Havertz, Leverkusen and Chelsea legend at the age of 21!

Came back to this forum after I saw his performance today and I couldn´t be happier for him. That´s the Kai I know from Leverkusen, finally playing with confidence and the team seems to be playing more to his strenghts. Hope, this is a new start for him.

"Zeit abzuliefern".

Sport BILD is basically the Bayern newspaper, their journalists tried to write Havertz to Bayern for 3 years and I suppose they are pissed he didn´t join them. Don´t worry about this crap.

Long way to go to World Class for sure, but I am convinced that he has the potential to reach that level. But of course I can´t look into the future. Back in 2012 every German football fan was convinced that Mario Götze would be a potential Ballon Dor Winner and his career turned to sh*t after his move to Bayern. On Werner, I´m pretty biased. I never really rated him, because in my opinion he profited a lot from the Leipzig system, which relies on high pressing, ball recoveries and fast passes behind the defensive line. With his unbelievable pace and his great timing of runs, this system fit him perfectly. In the National team you could sometimes see him struggling against teams who sit deep and don´t give him much space to run into. His touch is just not on a great level and he is often disposessed when he takes on defenders 1 on 1. And he isn´t that clinical of a striker in my opinion, there were a lot of games where he missed a lot clear cut chances. But then he has those freakish games where he scores 3 or 4 from impossible angles. Really hard to grasp as a player. I can´t argue against his goal scoring record of course.

I haven´t been on here since a few months but after Kai apparently has had a poor run of form for you, I decided to look into this forum again out of curiosity. I am a Bayer Leverkusen supporter since 18 years and I have watched basically every Havertz game for us and wrote a few things about him on here earlier. What I can say is: There might be a slight misconception about Havertz time in the Bundesliga. I didn´t expect him to be a consistent top performer right away at Chelsea, he hasn´t been consistent for us either during the years. The fascinating thing is, that the discrepancy in his performances is very high. In the first 20 games of last season or so he had very poor performances, eventually leading to him being whistled off the pitch by some of our supporters when he was substituted against Hertha Berlin in November 2019. In those periods, he showed the same kind of mistakes that were being described her, combined with his body language (which I compared to Özil in my earlier postings) I know that it can be frustrating to watch him, especially if your team is losing a game. I saw a few posts saying, that he needs to get used to the "pace" of the PL and I personally think that´s a myth. He showed the same weaknesses in the Bundesliga as well in his bad periods. That´s not a Premier League phenomenon. But as I said, the discrepancy in his performances is very high. Meaning that when he is at bis best, he is an incredible player and a constant goal threat. He is still young and he still doesn´t have the consistency to play a his highest level all the time. I think that is the next step he needs to take in order to develop into a world class player. Give him time, be patient. Even though it can be frustrating witnessing his playing style when he has his bad periods.

Play him in his natural position and he will deliver. Should give him loads of confidence for the upcoming games. And then, he will probably be more involved in the game, you don´t play against Liverpool every week.

Yes, that´s what I was trying to say basically.

Kai did play as a RW for us last season, but when I watched the Chelsea game I felt like he was positioned very wide in comparison to his games with us. He´s not a natural winger, he obviously lacks the pace and acceleration for it. He´s a tall guy after all. He likes to cut inside on his left foot from that position, you won´t see him making runs down the touchline and putting in crosses. He occupies basically the same spaces that Messi does in Barcelona. Opening up the wing for the full-back and trying to receive the ball between the lines and turn. And I am obviously not comparing him to Messis quality, he just uses similar positions. Besides the fact that he looked a bit nervous and sloppy (the sloppiness isn´t out of the ordinary with him sometimes), I think the game didn´t really suit him as Brighton had more posession than you and he barely had players around him offensively to link up with. I just hope for you guys that Lampard finds the right place for him to shine.

There is no way, the fee is just 72m €, we would´ve never sold him for that. German media outlets kicker and BILD who are the most reliable are reporting 80+20 in add-ons. In our club statement we stated that Chelsea "accepted the Leverkusen transfer conditions." Even on the Chelsea website Kai was labelled as the "record signing" so he at least has to be more expensive than Kepa.

Well, its finally coming to an end, thank god. Kicker reports a fee around 100 mil € with add-ons. Good deal for both sides hopefully. Take good care of Kai and don´t expect him to score 20+ goals in his first season please. And please for the love of god get off our Twitter accounts.

Statements from our managing director Rudi Völler today in kicker: "Regarding Kai, there is no decision yet. I´m repeating myself, if I emphasize that we´re talking about a wonderful footballer here. There is no update on him. It is communicated clearly and consensual with him and his agents that he can only leave the club under certain conditions. Otherwise, he´ll stay." Free translation by me. Pretty clear that we are still insisting on 100m € and there is no room for negotiation. But probably you won´t read any of this from the so-called insider journalists like Romano and so on....

I think I compared Kai to Özils body language when I wrote here a few weeks ago. So, since some are wondering: Yes, his body language is like that practically every game, not just in the 2 europa league games you guys have watched.

I wrote something about him a few pages ago in this thread. You should find it in my post history. But to briefly elaborate on your questions: Strengths: Unbelievable composure on the ball, especially at his age. Ball control, vision in the final third, a player that makes the right decision 90% of the time. Very rarely loses possession. Great finishing, he likes to make runs into the box from central midfield and scores a lot from there. He´s also tall and wins many headers, can also play as a holding player due to his skillset. Weaknesses: Sometimes a bit too careless/arrogant on the ball. Not good in 1 vs. 1 dribbling, even tho he tries it quite often. Since Peter Bosz came in, we have been a high pressing team and Kai was a part of that. I wouldn´t necessarily say that he is a particularly good presser or something. Stats-wise, he covered the most ground for us all season but on the pitch sometimes his body language is a bit reminiscent to Mesut Özil, when a game doesn´t go his way. He is one of the fastest players in the Bundesliga but only at full speed. Definitely not a "pacey" winger, his acceleration just isn´t that great, mainly because he is nearly 1,90 m. But he can win running duels. Physically he has improved a lot since he debuted with 17. Put on some muscle over the years and is a tall guy. Shouldn´t have a problem. He played for us as a number 8 in the 18/19 system alongisde Julian Brandt and he scored 17 goals from there and definitely had his best run of form for us. I wrote a little bit about that in my previous post. But to answer shortly: Yes, that position suits him 100%.

I wrote here a few weeks ago, that there won´t be a discount and it seems like Fabrizio and other media outlets confirming it. 55 + add ons is quite laughable and not realistic at all. Either Chelsea pays up or no deal will happen, we are not desperate to sell Havertz this summer. Think, this thing will stretch out a bit and Chelsea will end up paying the 90m $.