No takers for Kai Havertz at £70m

Kai Havertz is said to be one of our big-name players in the shop window this summer, but that has not generate much interest in him so far. Part of that is down to the terrible season everyone’s had at Chelsea, but part of that is thanks to a much more common transfer market concern: fees.

Chelsea are supposedly looking for around £70m, which sounded optimistic from the get-go, since it’s quite close to what we paid to Bayer Leverkusen three years ago. A more realistic fee might be around £50m, which is what more recent reporting is running with.

As per the Telegraph, Chelsea now face a “dilemma” between either dropping our asking price to generate interest, or risk entering the new season with a player who might not have his full heart into it, and who might thus leave for even less either next summer, or for free the summer after. Obviously, a lot can change in 12-24 months, but we seem quite insistent on avoiding such risk.

All that said, £50m would not be a terrible price at all, so I’m not sure if there is any actual conundrum — other than so far, only Real Madrid have been linked.