Stroking chins and percolating wisdom, social media oracles already have misgivings about Arsenal's £65million swoop for Kai Havertz.
The German striker rarely set the world alight at Chelsea, give or take scoring the Champions League final winner against Manchester City two years ago.
And apart from his experience, versatility, aerial threat, young age and Premier League oven-readiness, Gunners fans are anxious to find out where Havertz will fit into manager Mikel Arteta's grand design. The player is expected to undergo a medical in the next 48 hours, with the deal formally rubber-stamped early next week.
First and foremost, Havertz offers cover, across a variety of positions anywhere across the front line, in a squad which will be stretched across four competitions, including the Champions League, from August.
Arteta believes he can prosper as the lone striker up top, at No.10 – where Havertz shone for Bayer Leverkusen before his £71m move to Stamford Bridge three years ago – or as an advanced, left-sided midfielder, a role where Granit Xhaka shone early last season.
Havertz has played 2,774 minutes as an orthodox centre-forward since his move to Stamford Bridge in 2020 – more than all other attacking or midfield positions put together. And he admitted last year: “I don't have a favourite position. I know I'm not a real No.9, just waiting in the box and doing headers.
“I want to be influential in the game, get on the ball, drop sometimes into midfield and start attacks there. After three years, everyone should know by now what I can do – that I'm flexible up front and I can play a lot of different positions.
“Of course, sometimes it's good to play in different positions and sometimes it's bad, but in general I'm an offensive player. I like to be in the box, I like to score goals, I like to arrive in the box often and I don't care if I'm there as a No.9 or a No.10. If I'm in the box, I'm there to score goals – and that's it.”
Arteta is a big fan of Havertz as an aerial threat – at 6ft 2in, he won 57 per cent of his aerial duels last season where Gabriel Jesus, a revelation until his knee injury at the World Cup, scored a 37 per cent success rate in the air.
And in a high-tempo approach, the German's appetite for hard work is right up the Gunners' street. Only Tottenham's Son Heung-min made more runs than Havertz last season, when seven of his nine goals for Chelsea were in a winning cause and three of them were winners.
In a dismal campaign at Stamford Bridge – Chelsea finished a staggering 45 points behind champions Manchester City, despite the Premier League's highest wage bill at £216m – Havertz was by no means the only player who came up short.
But he pinpointed the dismissal of Champions League-winning head coach Thomas Tuchel as the moment when their season turned from mild tremors to turbulence.
Havertz said: “Everything that could go wrong went wrong for us this year. The season started relatively quietly, even though we had a change of ownership which was a big challenge for the whole club.
“And then Thomas Tuchel was fired, which always makes a difference when you have been successful with a coach and then he gets fired out of nowhere.”
Tuchel spoke of “always wanting more from Kai because he is full of talent,” adding: “Nobody is angry with him, but once you play for Chelsea we want to have the best out of you.”
If Arteta can solve one of the most baffling puzzles since the Rubik's cube, doubters among Arsenal's fan base may come to regard £65m for Havertz as a snip, not an outlandish gamble.
