Kai Havertz Pulls on Arsenal Shirt for the First Time in Pre-Season Friendly
Arsenal kicked off their pre-season campaign with a 1-1 draw against Nurnberg in Germany, with their new signing Kai Havertz making his debut in the second half. The 24-year-old German midfielder, who joined the club for a fee of £65million, was thrilled to pull on an Arsenal shirt for the first time and is looking forward to adapting to his new team-mates.
Speaking after the game, Havertz said: “I’m very happy – for me it’s a very big club and now to play here is of course a dream and I’m happy to be part of this group. I’ve been here for four days and I feel already very welcome so I’m happy to be with the boys. It’ll take maybe some days and weeks to get used to the style of play, that is clear. But I’m going to give everything for the club – especially in the next weeks – to get the fitness back into my body and hopefully perform in the highest level in the league.”
Havertz also spoke about his decision to join Arsenal, saying: “It’s a young group and when I watched them last year from the outside it was fun to watch them, and I felt the energy behind the club. It’s great to be here and hopefully we’re going to have a good time and achieve a lot of things. From the outside it always looked like a big family and I always felt the energy whenever I played against them. For me, it was always so tough to play against them because you felt the togetherness of the players, and now to be in there I felt very welcome from the first second. I’ve been here for a couple of days and I already feel part of the group.”
Havertz won the Champions League during his time with Chelsea, but some may view his three-year stay as a failure. However, Havertz doesn’t see it that way, saying: “Of course you know it was not the best season for Chelsea last year. I have to say I am always going to be thankful for the club, always going to be thankful for the fans as well. I had a very, very nice three years. Sometimes from the outside maybe it doesn’t look like this, but it was 100% the right step to go there three years ago. But now I’ve completed this move and now my full focus is on Arsenal and I’m going to give everything for the club to hopefully achieve something big.”
Havertz is expected to take up Granit Xhaka’s midfield role at Arsenal and will be hoping to make an immediate impact at his new club. He will need some time to adapt to his new team-mates and style of play, but if he can hit the ground running then Arsenal could have a real star on their hands.
It remains to be seen how Havertz will fare in his new surroundings, but one thing is certain – he is determined to make a success of his move to Arsenal and is looking forward to achieving great things with his new club.