Kai Havertz will only leave Bayer Leverkusen after Europa League campaign — report

No decision is expected anytime soon in the budding saga of Kai Havertz, but that’s not stopping the rumor mill from idle speculation and prognostication.

One of the latest comes from Germany’s kicker magazine (via FCB Inside), which jumps on the Havertz-to-Chelsea train, claiming that the 21-year-old has chosen the Blues — “final decision”, if you can believe it!

More interestingly, the report also claims that while Leverkusen have resigned themselves to losing the wonderkid this summer (for proper compensation, of course), they aren’t actually going to let him go until after their 2019-20 Europa League campaign finishes.

This is in contrast to the situation with Timo Werner, who left RB Leipzig at the end of June, a month before their Champions League campaign was set to resume. The obvious difference in his case was that Chelsea paid a release clause, though if the parties had been willing, an arrangement to allow Werner to play out Leipzig’s European campaign surely would’ve been possible to negotiate.

Leverkusen are set to play Rangers in early August in the second leg of their Round of 16 matchup. Bayer hold a 3-1 away leg lead, and are practically in the quarterfinals already. Like the Champions League, the Europa League will conclude in a single-elimination tournament, which in their case will be held in Germany (the CL will be in Portugal). The Europa League final is set for August 21.

Should Havertz & Co make it that far, that would be three weeks before the start of next season for Chelsea. Not exactly ideal timing for a new signing, buy maybe it would just help get Havertz up to match fitness faster?