“Just pay the asking price” became the statement of the early summer. One that I became very bored and frustrated with.
I do hope that all those saying this will live their lives by their words. Everytime they buy a house or car, they just pay the asking price. They never make an offer below the asking price, and certainly not below what the maximum they would be willing to pay. No “agree to meet in the middle”.
Through negotiating, Jurrien Timber is basically a free transfer.
West Ham’s provisional asking price for Declan Rice was £120million in guaranteed fees. We ended up signing him for £100m guaranteed, with £5m add-ons. A saving of £20m.
Across London, Chelsea were reportedly asking for £75m. We have reportedly secured him for £60m plus £5m add-ons. That is a saving of £15m on the guaranteed asking price.
Had we just “paid the asking price” on both, we would have spent £195m this summer on Havertz and Rice. Instead we negotiated.
Those negotiations has seen us commit £160m in guaranteed fees. A saving of nearly £35m.
With that £35m, we have gone to Ajax and come away from Amsterdam with Jurrien Timber.
The Timber transfer fee is almost the same as what we saved ourselves in negotiating with West Ham and Chelsea.
Ajax were asking for £50m in guaranteed fees for their young Dutch central defender. We got him for £35m guaranteed fees with £5m in add-ons.
For pretty much the same money we would have paid for Rice and Havertz had we just paid the asking price, we get Rice, Havertz and Timber. Hence my headline – Buy Havertz and Rice, get Timber free.
And that, ladies and gentleman, is why you do not just “pay the asking price”.
We all knew it was coming, but last night Arsenal finally confirmed the signing of Kai Havertz.
With everything that has been going on with Declan Rice, it feels like the Havertz deal has gone under the radar. And I do not think people realise how big a deal it is.
We have gone to Chelsea with a bag full of cash and walked back to North London with their best player.
Ignore what Chelsea fans are saying. Last season Havertz was their best player.
Kai Havertz for Chelsea in the 2022/23 Premier League:
◉ Most goals ◉ Most shots on target ◉ Most chances created ◉ Most aerial duels won ◉ Most possession won final ⅓ ◉ Most final ⅓ passes ◉ Most duels won ◉ Most flick-ons ◉ Most lay-offs
And has probably been their best player of the last 3-years since he joined.
Signing the best player from a rival at home is something we have not done in god-knows how long.
I honestly can not remember the last time we went to Manchester United or Liverpool and signed their best player. And we have certainly not done it since Chelsea got their Rubles.
Some will say “Sol Campbell”, but Tottenham were not a top club then (and are not now!).
Even if you extend it to abroad…
We had Alexis Sanchez. A fantastic talent playing for Barcelona. But he never really became a mainstay on the Barcelona first team, often being rotated in and out.
In 2014/15, the Catalan side signed Luis Suarez so Sanchez became surplus for requirements. Suarez joining Neymar and Lionel Messi.
Mesut Ozil is another big name signing. He joined the year before Sanchez. But like Sanchez, his club no longer wanted him.
The German had started just 23 La Liga games the season before for Real Madrid. And in the summer of 2013, Madrid signed Isco and Gareth Bale. Ozil was moved on.
In both Ozil and Sanchez’s case, they were no longer wanted by their clubs.
They were not first team regulars in their final seasons, their clubs were looking to cash in and upgrade, and they were being touted around Europe. Havertz is not the same.
Last season, no Chelsea player played more games than Kai Havertz.
Of the 50 games Chelsea played, Havertz played a part in 47 of them, starting 38. Only goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga played more minuted.
Havertz is also one of the first name on the teamsheet for his country. And we are not talking about some tin-pot nation. We are talking about Germany.
Since making his international debut in 2018 he has:
Played 38 games
Been left on the bench 8 times
Missed 11 games due to illness or injury
Not been selected when fit on 1 occassion
So of the 47 games he was available for, he has played a part in 80% of them.
We then go further back.
Thierry Henry, Robert Pires, Patrick Vieira and more were not at the level Havertz is when they joined.
In 1995 we broke our transfer record Dennis Bergkamp. Two years before he joined he was runner-up in the Ballon d’Or. 1992 he finished 3rd.
But the Bergkamp of ’95 was not the World Class talent of 1993.
His move to Italy had been a disaster and Inter Milan were looking to get rid after just two seasons.
Havertz time at Chelsea has not been the disaster that Bergkamp’s spell at Inter was.
We potentially have to go back to 1971 for the last time we signed a player who was at the top of his game for a rival club. Alan Ball.
Ball was the youngest man of England’s 1966 team. His performances at the World Cup saw Everton sign him from Blackpool. The transfer was a record fee paid to an English club.
As part of the “Holy Trinity”, Ball would play an instrumental part as Everton won the league in 1970.
The season after, Everton struggled (like Chelsea), and Arsenal won the double. In December 1971, Ball joined Arsenal for a record fee.
The current champions went to the previous champions and signed their best player.
Ball was 26-years-old at the time and at his peak. A few years after joining he would be named club captain and play over 200 games for Arsenal.For a long time he would also be Arsenal’s most capped England player.
In modern day terms, Alan Ball was a wonderkid who fulfiled his potential and became World Class.
In any other summer, we would be celebrating what a coup signing Havertz is. But with the focus on Rice, we have secured his transfer inconspicuously.
Arsenal’s team flying to Chelsea keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga’s wedding to take the promo photos barely caused a ripple in the media or on social media.
The way the Havertz deal was done was how all transfers should be done. Quickly, professionally and in the interest of all parties.
I am comfortable in saying that Kai Havertz is the biggest transfer Arsenal have done (in terms of signing a top player from a rival) since Alan Ball – let us know in the comments if you disagree.
The grass is usually not greener on the other side.
It is crazy that the future of a 16-year-old footballer with a single minute of professional playing time under his belt has become a national story. But that is exactly what has happened with Ethan Nwaneri.
Nwaneri became the youngest ever player to appear in the top flight of English football back in September when he came off the bench in second half stoppage time against Brentford.
At the time, Nwaneri was stalling over signing scholarship with Arsenal – and reports of Chelsea and Manchester City circulating.
Some felt that Mikel Arteta giving Nwaneri game time was to show that he had a path to the first team. Others claimed it was financially driven; playing a senior game (even just one) is taken into account when compensation is determined.
Nwaneri, who has been with Arsenal since he was 9-years-old, disappeared from the Arsenal first team scene after making his debut. He was not selected in another match day squad. Not even as Arteta rested and rotated for the Europa League and League Cup.
This Friday Nwaneri is free to sign scholarship terms with whoever he wants, and it is unlikely that team will be Arsenal.
Chelsea and Manchester City and still leading the way, and he is expected to sign on for whoever gives him the biggest deal. At just 16, it is sad that a player is focused so much on who will pay him the most rather than who will be best for his career.
City and Chelsea might dominate youth football, but this is more due what they invest in recruiting the best young players from around England. Both clubs pay huge money to these young talents.
But just because they have the best youth systems, it does not mean that they produce the best senior players.
The last Man City youth team prospect to go on to become a regular first team player for them was Phil Foden. He made his debut oin 2017.
Two other youth prospects saw some game time this season – Rico Lewis and Cole Palmer. Lewis certainly has the potential to become a squad player for City. Maybe more.
What is interesting about both Lewis and Palmer was they were not “recruited in” at a later age.
Palmer and Lewis both joined Manchester City at 8-years old. Like Foden, they have only ever been in Man City’s academy.
In that time, City have signed hundreds of kids at the age of 15/16 from clubs in and around England. Jadon Sancho is the only one to have made an impact – and he needed a move away to get his chance.
Chelsea are no different.
Non-league football is filled with players Chelsea poached from other clubs. They all follow the same path.
Chelsea sign them at 14/15/16, they dominate youth football, get loaned out 4 or 5 times, then drop down the leagues.
A lot was made about Chelsea’s youth system when they won the Champions League final in 2021. And it was impressive.
Chelsea’s match day squad contained Reece James, Mason Mount, Andreas Christensen, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Billy Gilmour. All of whom spent different times at the club. Tammy Abraham also saw a lot of game time that year.
By the end of this summer, James could be the only one plying his trade in a Chelsea shirt.
This explosion of Cobham talent was more by luck than design – a transfer ban in 2019 forced Frank Lampard to have to promote the likes of James and Mount, and rely on Abraham upfront. A year later, they had all progressed to become key components of Thomas Tuchel’s squad.
But as new players have come in under new owners Clearlake Capital, it is the academy players being discarded.
You would be very surprised if Mount, Ruben Loftus Cheek, Conor Gallagher, Hudson-Odoi or Trevoh Chalobah were still at the club next season.
Like City, there best young talents were with them as youngsters.
Lewis Hall, Gallagher, Mount, Loftus Cheek, James, Chalobah and Hudson-Odoi were all at the club as U8s.
Andreas Christensen is probably the last player recruited at a later age into the Cobham set-up to make an impact at the club.
Nwareni will not be the first teenager to leave Arsenal. In fact one made the exact same journey last season as Nwaneri
12 months ago, Omari Hutchinson decided his future was away from Arsenal and joined Chelsea (ironically he was released by them at 9-years-old)
Maybe it was because he feared he would get little game time at Arsenal with Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli on the wings. Or maybe it was down to money. The official line was that he just saw Chelsea as the better fit for his future.
Arsenal wanted to loan him out for a season to a Championship side to help with his development. Chelsea reportedly informed him that he will be part of the first team squad.
Last season, Hutchinson played jsut 2 games for Chelsea – a total of 49 minutes. It is likely he will now join a Championship side on loan.
He has basically wasted a year of his career by moving to Chelsea.
Had he agreed a new deal with Arsenal, he would have spent 2022/23 on loan and, if performances justified, could have been part of Arteta’s first team plans this year.
Instead he is going to be sent on loan a year later. And Chelsea have bought so many players in the last 12 months he will unlikely ever pull on their shirt again for a senior game.
Over the years we have also seen the likes Stephy Mavididi (Juventus) and Marcus McGuane (Barcelona) move to pastures new, turning down scholarship terms.
Nwaneri leaving will be a big story. It will be reported that we are losing one of our best young players and Arsenal will be highly criticised when he leaves.
Ignore the noise. Myles Lewis-Skelly has signed his scholarship. And many at the club beleive he is the better player.
Keenos
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