• Ornstein says Arsenal scouted Havertz extensively when he was at Leverkusen.

  • Arsenal were in contact with his representatives in 2020, but were not able to pay the price Leverkusen demanded.

  • Havertz popped up on Arsenals radar again around March this year, when he was approaching final 2 years of his contract.

  • Mount, Gundogan and Kudus were looked at in the summer.

  • Arteta was the driving force behind our interest in Havertz. Edu was on board.

  • Bayern were interested in Havertz. Real Madrid wanted to wait and see how things unfolded with Harry Kane first.

  • Once Havertz learned of Arsenals interest, he had a Zoom meeting with Mikel Arteta. After this he was fully comitted to Arsenal.

  • Big difference in how public sees Havertz and how the people working in fotball see Havertz. He is highly rated in the fotball world.

  • Havertz has very good attitude and is “ultra comitted and dedicated” and fotball obsessed to get this right and work with the coaches.

  • His attitude, application and conduct on the training field is excellent. He is a very popular character with players and staff.

  • Ornstein mentions Barella as one CM option this summer, but sounds more like he mentions Barella as one of the midfielders that could have been signed this summer and not that he was somebody we specifically targeted.

  • Havertz base salary is in the region of 275k per week, almost same as at Chelsea.

  • His price/wage might make fans expect a more “glamorous” role from him when in reality his current role is a bit more subtle.

  • Marks the stats guy “Havertz is valued by Arteta for his work off the ball”. Havertz is really intelligent with his defensive positioning and doesnt shy away from a challenge when he needs to.

  • True tackles = Tackles + challenges lost + fouls comitted. A way to see a players tendency to “stick a foot in”

  • When in controlled posession, Havertz with his 6.4 true tackles ranks number 3 in the Arsenal squad. Adds a bite to the team when out of posession.

  • He has 1.4 blocked passses per 90 minutes, second highest in the Arsenal squad.

  • These are not the primary attributes Arsenal have brought him in for, but he has been in an important part in our defense being more solid this season.

  • CyberfunkTwenty77@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Sometimes there are things players bring that are hard to quantify.

    Kai actually has provided steel in the middle of the park and is a threat in the air. Also, it was clear after Xhaka left that Arteta wanted size in the #8 position.

    I’m not saying he’s been secretly stellar or anything like that, but there are aspects to the game that don’t involve assists and scoring. On top of that, Arsenal are 1st with a decent run of matches coming up and haven’t even been fully fit.

    I’m not gonna complain about one guy given the situation.

    • SubNoize@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      You know what’s the most important thing. He can only improve. Let’s say he’s not playing great or as well as he could be.

      As stated above, he’s tightened us up defensively and we’re currently in first.

      So say he starts playing even better and performing at an even higher level… What’s not to love about that? We should all be super excited about that prospect