Simon Johnson’s piece in the Athletic today is all about the good job the ownership have done selling players in the last 6 months, and the focus of it is Kai Havertz, who illustrates the good business perfectly.
Johnson points out that Chelsea paid Bayer Leverkusen an initial £62m for Havertz, with the possibility of a further €28m in add ons.
We don’t know what those add ons were – but if they were for number of goals scored or Premier League wins, we might have paid very few of them. It’s even possible that the £62m with £3m add ons we get from Arsenal will match what we’ve ended up paying for the German. Walking away from a disappointing signing after 3 years and breaking even (or close to it) is very good business.
The sale of Havertz for such a strong fee, so early in the window, really opens things up for Chelsea this summer, giving them a lot more clarity in terms of squad building plus the ready cash to do something about it.
