Mikel Arteta is convinced that 24-year-old Arsenal signing Kai Havertz will be a big success at Arsenal this season.
The Arsenal manager, speaking to ESPN, said he’s admired Havertz for a long time and is exactly the kind of player they want.
Arteta said: “Well he is a player that I admired for a long time and we had the possibility to bring him to the club.”
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“I had a few chats about how he was feeling about it and straight away I was so convinced that he’s a player and the type of personality that we want in the team to take us forward.”
“He’s so versatile, he is still very young but with incredible qualities and talent that fit in really well in what we want to do.”
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“I’m sure he’s going to be a big success.”
Havertz, who signed from Chelsea for a fee of £65m, is said to be settling very well in his early days at the club.
He made his debut for Arsenal in their 1-1 draw with FC Nurnberg last week.
The forward, who is versatile across multiple positions, could even be deployed in the role vacated by Granit Xhaka.
A new look midfield of Declan Rice, Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz seems a real possibility this season.
This is largely due to the added quality Declan Rice will bring, allowing Arteta to be more experimental elsewhere.
Arteta thinks Havertz will make a good fit at Arsenal
Arsenal play their next friendly against the MLS All-stars early on Thursday morning.
Gunners fans will hope to get another glimpse of Kai Havertz alongside fellow new signings Declan Rice and Jurrien Timber.
The three signings not only boost Arsenal’s quality this season but they give Arteta’s side much needed depth.
Arsenal’s title challenge came unstuck last season when key players such as William Saliba suffered a season-ending injury.
With the likes of Jurrien Timber now on board, who can play centrally or on the right, Arteta will feel much more comfortable.
Rob Holding, who underwhelmed when substituting for Saliba in those games, has been linked with an exit.
Turkish side Besiktas had a £2m bid rejected by Arsenal last week for the 27-year-old.
Although Mikel Arteta has signed several of his key targets, he still has a lot of outgoings to oversee.
Arsenal’s credited interest in the likes of Ajax’s 22-year-old Mohammed Kudus is thought to be dependent on the club offloading players.
Gunners fans will probably be hoping that Nicholas Pepe’s interest from a club in Saudi Arabia will soon materialize into a bid.
The 28-year-old has now returned from his loan but seemingly doesn’t have a future at the Emirates.