14 hours ago, Chelsbear said:

No idea about any of that stuff. I take it we are in a financial mess then if thisbis all in aid of FFP.

I wouldn’t say financial mess. More non compliant. FFP with its timeframes means you can’t snooze on balancing your books.

3 hours ago, Frankie8Lampard said:

Never understand why that is the go-to defence for Kai. Multiple managers have tried him in different positions including behind the striker and never got the best out of him. He plays well for one or two games and then completely vanishes.

How many times have you seen Kai playing either as front 2 or behind a st (the st can't be timo ) where he is free to ghost around? 

14 hours ago, The Don Antonio said:

My fear is him fitting in with Arsenal and thus showing his full potential. Arsenal like to keep the ball on the ground and are a good possession team with fast players which fits him. 

He won't have to be going for headers with strong defenders. He will fit in as a false 9

I think he will play in xhaka role as double 10 with ode similar to how he was being used by lamp. 

If my prediction is true, it will be very funny because it feels like Arteta is trying to copy lamp,because Lamp also tried to sign Rice.  

Edited June 22, 20233 yr by Bob stark

Some thoughts:

• Selling Havertz for an FFP profit is a minor miracle, but selling him for an actual profit as apparently reported is bloody murder.
• He will do well at Arsenal but -
• A lot of "reports" that Arsenal value his 'versatility'; if true, this could be a bad career move. Havertz needs a manager who will say to him "you are my no. 10" or "you are my striker", not another manager who will use him to fill gaps across the forward or midfield line as needed. He needs someone with a clear and consistent vision for what they want from him. If Arteta wants him for his versatility IMO his career as a top-tier player is over, though he could be a very good squad addition for them in the long term.

Edited June 22, 20233 yr by SydneyChelsea

I'm in the clear minority here but I am (sadly) very confident if he leaves for Arsenal, he will be great for them and we will regret it.

2 hours ago, Qaz said:

I'm in the clear minority here but I am (sadly) very confident if he leaves for Arsenal, he will be great for them and we will regret it.

When he first arrived, like Werner, I though they were good but over time he's faded - did score the CL winner though... I wish we still had Werner - even if he didn't score he scared the sh*t out of defenders with his pace...

7 minutes ago, Bebe1980 said:

When he first arrived, like Werner, I though they were good but over time he's faded - did score the CL winner though... I wish we still had Werner - even if he didn't score he scared the sh*t out of defenders with his pace...

Come on down Mr Mudryk.

Arsenal will get the best years out of him, especially with a squad that's been together for a couple of years. Even if he has a slow first season, his re-sell value wont go down in a few years time, because he's a proven international player at minimum. It's basically a no-lose signing for Arsenal in the long run. I could see our reasons for selling, it's done so there's no point argue about it anymore. His versatility may just be his downfalls, basically a jack of all trade, and never going to be the special player as a 8 or 10.

One thing that strikes me as odd is that, unlike the case of Mount, Pochettino doesn't seem to have said that he wanted to work with him. So it is obviously a very good business by the Club, more so when Pochettino is not rating him that highly. I'm not sure what that says about Havertz and/or Pochettino. I guess that we will see once he plays for LesArses.

2 hours ago, Qaz said:

I'm in the clear minority here but I am (sadly) very confident if he leaves for Arsenal, he will be great for them and we will regret it.

I think regret only comes into it when looking at what we do next.

One thing i think that we must all surely agree open is that Havertz fell short of his potentialnere and our expectations for him, notwithstanding any individual performances or specific goals.

If you look when Man Utd sold Mark Hughes to us, they were losing a legend in many of their eyes, but they had Andy Cole comign through. Any regrets tha they might have had about sellign to a rival were erased by teh exploits of teh replacement.

If the players we now bring in start delivering on the pitch and start entertaining us, any success or failure encountered by the likes of Havertz or Mount will surely fade into insignificance for us.

9 minutes ago, RMH said:

One thing that strikes me as odd is that, unlike the case of Mount, Pochettino doesn't seem to have said that he wanted to work with him. So it is obviously a very good business by the Club, more so when Pochettino is not rating him that highly. I'm not sure what that says about Havertz and/or Pochettino. I guess that we will see once he plays for LesArses.

We don't know Pochettino's thoughts on Havertz. The reality is that Havertz wanted to leave so it's highly likely Pochettino had no say in the matter.

Always thankful for the winner in the CL final. He sadly was always a square peg in a round hole here. A player who you have to build your team around. Not quite a striker, not quite a number 10 or a number 8. I don't expect him to much at Arsenal. He seems like the reverse of what they need but we'll take their cash and move on.

1 hour ago, dermott said:

We don't know Pochettino's thoughts on Havertz. The reality is that Havertz wanted to leave so it's highly likely Pochettino had no say in the matter.

Yes, that's true but, as I mentioned, in Mount's case (who has also made it very clear wants out) it has been widely reported that Pochettino asked the club to make an effort to keep him because he wanted Mount to be part of his team. This has not been reported for any other player, Havertz included.

29 minutes ago, RMH said:

Yes, that's true but, as I mentioned, in Mount's case (who has also made it very clear wants out) it has been widely reported that Pochettino asked the club to make an effort to keep him because he wanted Mount to be part of his team. This has not been reported for any other player, Havertz included.

The alternative take is that Pochettino is interested in neither of them and the Pochettino stories are just to make United think we might not sell Mount if they under value him. 

Arsenal were happy to meet a fair valuation, no need to fanny them about with fake news in the press. 

16 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

The alternative take is that Pochettino is interested in neither of them and the Pochettino stories are just to make United think we might not sell Mount if they under value him. 

Arsenal were happy to meet a fair valuation, no need to fanny them about with fake news in the press. 

Yes, you could be right. However, the story about Mount was way before Utd made an official offer, while nothing was said about Havertz before we knew how much Arsenal was going to offer (and I think that they started at 45 or 50m, right?). In any case, your take is also valid. As always, we won't know, but the correct answer will be somewhere in the middle.

- Bought for £68m amortised over 5 years
- £68m ÷ 5 = £13.6m per year
- Has 2 years left on his contact
- £13.6m x 2 = £27.2m
- Arsenal paid £60m for him
- £60m - £27.2m = £32.8m
- Chelsea profit by £32.8m for FFP
- £7.8m per year saved on wages

All the articles I'm reading suggest Arteta wants to replace Xhaka with Havertz. Now this is either a genius move, or a suicidal one.

A midfield of Partey, Havertz, Odegaard would mean they instantly switch to a 4-1-4-1, which will undoubtedly bring more goals, but is it really sustainable long term? With CL football, too? I mean it's a young squad still that screams for two enforcers in midfield. They had it last season with Xhaka and Partey and still have shiped in goals for fun in lots of important matches. 

Now for Arteta to disrupt that and only keep an enforcer in midfield, I don't know... seems like a suicidal move the way I see it on paper. PL is a different kind of league and gung ho football cand only take you so far. Even Guardiola who is obsessed with attacking football struggled when he had only one defensive midfielder on the pitch. 

They're trying to offload Partey to the Saudis. Or were, while they were confident of bringing in Rice. With City now muddying that picture it will be interesting to see what happens.

7 hours ago, Qaz said:

I'm in the clear minority here but I am (sadly) very confident if he leaves for Arsenal, he will be great for them and we will regret it.

He definitely has the potential to be great, but carry on playing him as a striker and he wont be anywhere near, truly is dreadful as an out and out 9. 

12 hours ago, Bob stark said:

How many times have you seen Kai playing either as front 2 or behind a st (the st can't be timo ) where he is free to ghost around? 

I’d argue he’s spent most of his time here doing a brilliant ghost impression on the pitch. 

Medical booked for this weekend. I would expect that means deal is officially done either then or early next week.

Im going to have a party when he is sold.

My only concern is that our attack looks fairly weak, inconsistent and unproven.

Noni, Mudryk - haven’t done anything yet and have a lot to prove. 

Sterling - turns up when he wants 

Nkunku - unproven 

Broja, Jackson - done very little to suggest they can do it at elite level 

 

Pochettino is going to have to work some miracles to get us scoring. Our attack is light and unproven. 

6 minutes ago, JM7 said:

My only concern is that our attack looks fairly weak, inconsistent and unproven.

Noni, Mudryk - haven’t done anything yet and have a lot to prove. 

Sterling - turns up when he wants 

Nkunku - unproven 

Broja, Jackson - done very little to suggest they can do it at elite level 

 

Pochettino is going to have to work some miracles to get us scoring. Our attack is light and unproven. 

Fair concerns mate, I would feel a lot more confident if Sterling was sold as well.