There was a time when Arsenal spending more than £60 million on one player would have had fans dancing in the streets of north London.
It is 10 years since former chief executive Ivan Gazidis hailed the “escalation of our financial firepower,” a sign that after years of transfer market frugality triggered by self-funding a move to Emirates Stadium, the club was finally ready to compete for the biggest players. And in September 2013, they signed Mesut Özil for £42.4m. From Real Madrid, no less. Ozil was a bonafide star on the world stage and the Gunners smashed their previous club-record purchase — a paltry £15m for Andrey Arshavin — to get supporters salivating over the dawning of a new era.
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Transfer fees have continued to inflate across the world in the intervening decade and yet Arsenal have only paid a larger amount on eight occasions since, four of which came in the last two years.
Kai Havertz is the third-most expensive signing in Arsenal’s history. There is some dispute over the precise amount: sources close to the Gunners insist it is a fee rising to £65m, while those at Chelsea suggested the deal could eventually be worth £67.5m. Either way, it is the sort of outlay Arsenal fans used to crave and many still struggle to associate with the club’s owner, Kroenke Sports Enterprises, which oversaw years of modest investment prior to the emphatic financial backing Mikel Arteta has enjoyed as head coach.
Yet Havertz’s arrival did not garner anything like the level of excitement commensurate with his price tag. Perhaps it was lost somewhat in the slipstream of the bigger deal this summer: the acquisition of midfielder Declan Rice from West Ham for a fee that could reach £105m.
Rice’s signing felt like a major coup given Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City were among the clubs to have expressed an interest. In the end, only Bayern and City made concerted efforts to sign the England international, but it was nevertheless a reflection of Arsenal’s rude health they could complete a deal which made him the second-most expensive player in Premier League history.
There was no such competition for Havertz, whose time in England has been a frustrating wait for potential to ignite since he arrived at Stamford Bridge from Bayer Leverkusen for a fee of £71m in 2020.
“Today it was tough in certain moments,” Arteta said after last weekend’s 2-2 draw against Fulham. “He got in great areas and the ball didn’t arrive. In a lot of situations, he should have scored a lot of goals already this season. That’s the thing that is missing there.”
The numbers don’t entirely back that up. In Havertz’s three league games to date, he totalled four shots, none on target. His expected goals (xG) figure was 0.35.
Granit Xhaka probably thought his complicated relationship with Arsenal fans had settled in a final resting place after his summer move to Bayer Leverkusen. Yet the man who told his own supporters to “f— off” in the nadir of his seven-year stay at the club, only to embark upon an improbable latter-day redemption story, finds his stock rising further as a result of Havertz’s slow start.
This is, of course, reactionary in the extreme. Xhaka’s adjustment from a deep-lying midfielder to a more attacking role came as Arteta’s Arsenal grew together, with the Switzerland international invited to embrace the more creative side of his game. Havertz has predominantly operated as a No. 10, a striker or as a wide player. He is now being asked to play as a No. 8 in a 4-3-3 shape which has teething problems all over the pitch.
Arsenal may be unbeaten — and were three minutes away from amassing a maximum nine points before Fulham equalised — but have not looked convincing in any match so far.
