Former Chelsea winger Florent Malouda has criticised Chelsea's sale of Kai Havertz, comparing his departure to the exits of Kevin De Bruyne and Mohamed Salah.
Havertz has joined Mikel Arteta's Arsenal project in an initial £65million deal, with the 24-year-old making his departure following a mixed three-year spell at Stamford Bridge. The Gunners' spending is set to continue, with a move to sign Declan Rice expected to be confirmed - another former Chelsea player who slipped through the net.
Malouda, who won the Premier League and Champions League at Chelsea, has criticised the club's decision to sell Havertz, 24. Chelsea paid £75.8m to sign then 21-year-old Havertz from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer of 2020, making a loss on a player who had two years left on his contract.
Malouda warned how the transfer could come back to haunt Chelsea, telling Genting Casino: "I think that the people that are associated to Chelsea need to look in the mirror because we’ve seen his kind of thing happen repeatedly at the club over the last few seasons, it is almost like a pattern.
"Chelsea can always attract the best talent in the world at an early age and sometimes we fail to give these players a proper development plan."
Arriving as an attacking midfielder after Chelsea beat off stiff competition from across Europe, Havertz became a false nine under the management of Thomas Tuchel, a role he has also played for the German national team. He scored the winning goal for Chelsea in the 2021 Champions League final, with a clinical finish during a 1-0 win against Manchester City.
"Havertz is not in his prime yet," Malouda insists. "He won the Champions League and is a big player in the German national team, so you can’t question his quality, but there has been a frustration with his performances at Chelsea. The bigger picture is that he is not the only player to have suffered or performed inconsistently at Chelsea and his form mirrors that of the club.
"Whenever a player leaves, you always wish them well, but his departure underlines why Chelsea need to fix the problems they have when it comes to developing players. We’ve seen some brilliant players that were there go to other clubs and shine, the prime examples being Kevin De Bruyne and Mo Salah. De Bruyne has just won the treble.
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"I wish he was at Chelsea to win the treble, but if you asked him if he wanted to go back, he would say no. That is something that needs to be resolved. Chelsea is an attractive club, but players have flourished when they’ve left for lots of different reasons. This is a problem that needs to be fixed."
When Arsenal announced the signing, Arteta revealed his plans for Havertz, with mention of a midfield role. This suggests a return to a more natural position for the player, who thrived in the Bundesliga as a goalscoring midfielder for Leverkusen as a teenager.
Arteta said: "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."
Malouda agreed with this position, adding: "I definitely don’t see him as a number nine. I see him as more of a supporting attacking midfielder who can play around the striker. He has the ability to make long runs and he is comfortable arriving in the box and timing his runs well.
"I think he needs to create things in the midfield. I’m sure his game will be more suited to Arsenal than at Chelsea because Arsenal play with a lot of interchanging and movement between positions."
