Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has already hinted at his plans for Kai Havertz, following the 24-year-old's £65m switch from rivals Chelsea.
Havertz spent the majority of his time at Chelsea playing up front, but Arteta plans to use him differently. The Spaniard is a big fan of his new signing's versatility and plans to use him in midfield, with the German international largely playing as an attacking midfielder when he was at Bayer Leverkusen.
And Arteta could even partner Havertz with Declan Rice in central midfield, once a £105m move for the West Ham star is finalised, with both Thomas Partey and Granit Xhaka potentially on their way out this summer. "Kai is a player of top quality," Arteta said after the deal was finally announced.
"He has great versatility and is an intelligent player. He will bring a huge amount of extra strength to our midfield and variety to our play. We welcome Kai and his family to Arsenal Football Club and we are all excited to start working with him when we start pre-season training soon."
Sporting director Edu added: "We're excited to bring Kai to the club and great work by everyone to get this deal complete. Kai is an exciting addition to our squad, who will bring great attacking quality and versatility.
"As an experienced 24-year-old, his signing represents another important step in strengthening our young core of talented players we have at Arsenal. We look forward to working with Kai."
Havertz spent three years at Chelsea and scored 32 goals in 139 appearances in all competitions, including the all important goal that saw the Blues beat Manchester City 1-0 to win the 2021 Champions League final. And he is hoping to add to his trophy collection with Arsenal, stating: "It's super exciting for me to be joining this amazing club and to be part of the Arsenal family.
"This club has such a big history, and I hope we can achieve lots of things. The mentality in the Arsenal squad is very high and you can feel that. That was one of the reasons why it has been so hard to play against Arsenal recently. The aim is to win trophies and I'm going to give everything to do that for the supporters and everyone at the club.
"I'm now looking forward to meeting all the players and the staff when we come back for pre-season." He also bid an emotional farewell to Chelsea fans, releasing a statement on social media shortly before the move was announced where he apologised to supporters after video of him in an Arsenal shirt for his announcement video was apparently leaked online.
""Dear Chelsea, I would have preferred for you to hear my thoughts on leaving Chelsea first from myself before my thoughts on me joining my new team," he said. "This isn't my style and it upsets me that you had to hear of it in this way."
