It’s been a busy morning on the sales front for Chelsea, and now that Fabrizio Romano and Gianluca di Marzio have had their fun on the Mateo Kovacic move to Man City, rival insider David Ornstein strikes back with an update on the fast moving Kai Havertz to Arsenal deal.
Last we heard the price for the player was creeping up as the Blues looked to squeeze £75m out of the Gunners, who only wanted to pay £50m. Predictably a meeting point looks to have been found in the middle, with Ornstein saying the fee will be “in the region of £65m.”
🚨 Arsenal close to agreement with Chelsea to sign Kai Harvertz for fee in region of £65m. Talks ongoing to finalise structure (instalments + add-ons). Personal terms in place & subject to deal being done, medical will be scheduled @TheAthleticFC #AFC #CFC https://t.co/B24O9cCnhF
— David Ornstein (@David_Ornstein) June 21, 2023
All that remains now is to figure out what proportion of that will be paid up front, and what will be paid as instalments or bonuses. That’s what’s holding things up now, but it sounds like it shouldn’t delay things for more than a couple of days, and we could have an announcement by this weekend.
Certainly the much mentioned June 30th accounting cutoff for FFP looks easily makeable in this deal and several others which are now racing towards completion. Overall we’re going to head into July with a very different squad to the one we started the summer with, and given our priority in these months was to trim down the group, that is very good news.
Havertz’s replacement, Christopher Nkunku, completed his move to Chelsea yesterday.
