Jase

Came from The Telegraph.

I do agree the fee is rather high and that money could spent elsewhere. But as Jype alluded to above, who are we to tell Leverkusen how much they should sell Havertz? We are just the buyer, they own Havertz and he still has a few years left on the contract. If the situation was the other way round, we would be aiming at getting the most out of the deal rather than selling the club's main star player at a discount, regardless of the pandemic. As for the pressure from the big price tag, well, that is another discussion altogether. 3 of those names you mentioned above are all at Barcelona and they were just dumb in spending that money for them without having any idea how to use them. Don't think the same can be said about us. Joao Felix, I think, has had some decent performances but he joined the wrong club.

Don't think Fabrizio Romano has any inside info on this deal. What he posted basically came from Bild, which was already tweeted by Jan Aage Fjortoft and Christian Falk.

The Premier League fixtures will be released tomorrow at 9am UK time.

But is it best for clubs to get this done ASAP? Leverkusen can then focus on buying replacements with the money. Havertz can then get here quicker and settle in and we can then move on to defensive signings!

Nothing too substantial here but...

When will people realize that United don't need a player like Havertz?

Is it? It seems Havertz has pushed for the move again and there seems to be greater urgency now on both clubs' part to agree on a deal sooner rather than later.

I know goals are goals but a lot of Willian's goal this season came from penalties and free kicks, which obviously means he didn't score a lot from open play. Will Willian better that at Arsenal? I highly doubt it. He has scored more than 5 league goals per season in only 3 of the 7 seasons here and he averaged only 9 goals per season overall. Too lazy to go through each of his goals but take away the penalties and free kicks, the goal output would be considerably less. Feel hard done by because the club didn't want him to give him a 3-year deal? He must be living in dreamland then.

Do I sense you losing hope again?

LMAO

Yeah but no mention of Reguilon there. It's still all Chilwell.

I don't believe for one second Man City, Man United and Bayern offered him a 2-year contract. That is just BS. Even if they did, them offering 2 years just like us, should have been a red flag moment but only Arsenal were desperate enough to offer 3 years. And Willian felt discredited? He might have overestimated his position or overplayed his cards. He is 32 years old this year. Did he really expect the club to give him a long term deal at that age? He should have been thankful that he even got 2 years, when the likes of Terry and Lampard didn't even get more than 1 year in the past and they contributed and achieved far more than Willian did!

Kai Havertz set to become the most expensive German player in history – the latest https://www.getfootballnewsgermany.com/2020/kai-havertz-set-to-become-the-most-expensive-german-player-in-history-the-latest/

On the Guardian... https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/aug/19/chelsea-reopen-talks-with-leverkusen-over-havertz-but-clubs-are-30m-apart?CMP=share_btn_tw

It's not hard to look "attacking" or "entertaining" when a team is up against a side with a porous defence like City's. So many sides in the Premier League, for example, this season have looked like that against City. Heck, so many of the lesser, defensive sides have looked that way against us! Atletico being negative under Simeone is no surprise at this point and why they chose that approach in a very winnable game against RB Leipzig is puzzling. In Leipzig's case, I didn't think they were boring against Atletico. They played intelligently by not letting playing into Atletico's hands, which is dominate and let them counter attack. Sure, they might not have played swash-buckling football but they have shown they can play something close to that in past games and let's not forget, they just lost their 34-goal striker. Not easy to reconfigure your side in the space of a month and for big Champions League games. None of the other players are prolific. As for Leipzig against PSG, well yeah. I guess they were caught in between two minds whether to just attack PSG and risk getting pummeled or contain PSG and play on the break. In the end and on hindsight, you could say they chose the wrong approach. Might as well just take the risk and see what would have happened. But again, they just lost Werner and they don't have anyone else who is prolific in the side. So their attack was always gonna look less potent and it's easy to forget that they aren't on, say, Bayern's level and are playing in their first Champions League semi-final. They can't play open attacking football and have to try and win it in different ways. That is debatable. France won the World Cup and Portugal won the Nations League but don't think anyone is calling them adventurous teams. They, especially in France's case, just have quality players to make the difference when it matters. I'd agree that adventurous teams are more likely to win things but pragmatism can still triumph. It just depends on how extreme one takes that approach. But again, no one will remember how a team plays to win things. They just remember winners. Liverpool might be an adventurous side but they beat Spurs in one of the most boring Champions League finals last season. And how is Real Madrid considered entertaining? Assuming you're talking about Zidane's Real Madrid, don't think they are particularly great to watch under him. They are pragmatic and the only reason they won 3 Champions League titles in a row few years ago because they had Ronaldo, Modric, Ramos, Bale etc coming up with decisive goals in big moments.

ISN'T THAT WHAT YOU WANT?

Early look at next season's Champions League group stage draw pots...