Arsenal have finally confirmed the £65million signing of Kai Havertz from Chelsea.
The German striker has crossed the capital on a long-term contract after quickly agreeing to switch clubs when the Gunners’ interest emerged earlier in the summer, and completing a medical over the weekend.
“It’s super exciting for me to be joining this amazing club and to be part of the Arsenal family. This club has such a big history, and I hope we can achieve lots of things,” Havertz told Arsenal’s official website.
“The mentality in the Arsenal squad is very high and you can feel that. That was one of the reasons why it has been so hard to play against Arsenal recently.
“The aim is to win trophies and I’m going to give everything to do that for the supporters and everyone at the club. I’m now looking forward to meeting all the players and the staff when we come back for pre-season.”
Mikel Arteta believes he can coax out the 24-year-old’s full potential in his pursuit to once again challenge Manchester City for the Premier League title next term.
We keep moving forward.
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) June 28, 2023
Kai Havertz is a Gunner ❤️ pic.twitter.com/76j5BStw9e
Havertz scored at a rate of worse than a goal every four games for Chelsea, which represented a decline on his numbers at Bayer Leverkusen, although his winner in the 2021 Champions League final inserted him into Blues folklore forever.
Arteta is understood to prize his versatility, believing Havertz can play either across the frontline as he did at Chelsea or in midfield as a No8 alongside Martin Odegaard.
“Kai is a player of top quality,” said Gunners boss Arteta. “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.”
Arsenal sporting director Edu added: “We’re excited to bring Kai to the club and great work by everyone to get this deal complete. Kai is an exciting addition to our squad, who will bring great attacking quality and versatility.
“As an experienced 24-year-old, his signing represents another important step in strengthening our young core of talented players we have at Arsenal. We look forward to working with Kai.”
Arsenal are expected to maintain a significant transfer push after this first deal of the summer. A £105million fee with West Ham is now agreed for Declan Rice after Manchester City withdrew from the race and the Gunners are also working hard to sign Ajax defender Jurrien Timber.
