What Graeme Souness said about Kai Havertz after he signed for Arsenal now looks very silly

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Although Kai Havertz is flying at Arsenal right now, both the striker and Mikel Arteta were experiencing a lot of criticism this time last year.

Arsenal paid £63m to sign Havertz from Chelsea, a move that many questioned when the German struggled to find his feet immediately in north London.

Arteta initially played Havertz as a left-sided number eight at the Emirates Stadium, a role that he never quite grasped at Arsenal.

And once the Spaniard then tried Havertz as a false nine, well the rest is history.

Havertz is now breaking records at Arsenal and many believe that he is capable of helping to deliver a Premier League title to N5.

Graeme Souness suggested that Kai Havertz would never change under Mikel Arteta

That being said, after Graeme Souness’ inflammatory comments about Arsene Wenger, the pundit also took aim at Havertz and Arteta back in 2023.

Speaking in September of last year, Souness said ‘good luck’ to Arteta if he thought he could improve Havertz at Arsenal, suggesting that was a pipe dream.

READ MORE: Jose Mourinho’s comments about Mikel Arteta in 2020 when Arsenal were struggling are now very interesting

However, the success and improvement of Havertz at Arsenal is now there for all to see, week in, week out.

Speaking via the Daily Mail, Souness said: “Not all of Arsenal’s spending makes sense to me – they’ve laid out £65m on Kai Havertz.

“Surely you’re not spending that kind of money on what he’s shown at Chelsea in the past three seasons?

“They’ve shelled out in the hope that Mikel Arteta can get a very, very different tune out of him than Frank Lampard, Thomas Tuchel or Graham Potter ever did – good luck with that one, Mikel.

“We live in a world where stats have become a very popular part of the game for the anoraks. But historically only two stats provide a judgement in black and white terms.

“For a goalkeeper: how many games have you played and how many clean sheets did you keep? And for a striker: how many games have you played and how many goals did you score?

“Havertz has scored 19 Premier League goals across the entirety of three seasons for Chelsea. Please draw your own conclusions.”

Souness was wrong about Wenger and Havertz at Arsenal

Of course, after also claiming that Wenger wasn’t a ‘footballing man’, Souness might be feeling slightly red in the face.

Wenger is one of the best footballing brains the sport has ever seen, and Havertz has gone to do exactly what Souness suggested he couldn’t at Arsenal.

Ian Wright recently compared Havertz to Thierry Henry – an indicator of just how far the German has come since his inconsistent days at Stamford Bridge.

Not only is Havertz now a consistent goal scorer, he’s also a duel monster – someone who adds to Arsenal’s physically imposing spine.

And if there was ever reason to ‘trust the process’ under Arteta, well Havertz’s turnaround is case and point.