Germany international Kai Havertz could be poised for big year at Chelsea

Germany international Kai Havertz was closely linked to Bayern Munich last summer, but ultimately opted to sign with Chelsea FC instead.

That decision by Havertz helped to drive a wedge between Bayern Munich manager Hansi Flick and sporting director Hasan “Brazzo” Salihamidzic, which ultimately played a role in Flick leaving the club to coach Germany.

Now, the 56-year-old German national team coach will finally get his opportunity to train Havertz, who looks like he could be poised for a big season.

“I think he has the potential to be one of the best players on the planet, I think he’s got the capabilities to be talked about like the other top top players in a few years’ time,” said former Chelsea and Everton man Pat Nevin in an exclusive interview with British Gambler, that was made available to Bavarian Football Works. “A lot of people might say they saw it coming when it happens, but it’s difficult to see other players capable of doing what he can do in the next couple of years. Havertz as a technical player, will be up there with the very best in the world. He has been adapting the system in pre-season so far in an unusual way, you can see he wants two strikers on the pitch.”

As for the man responsible for deploying Havertz in ways he can be successful, Nevin is expecting Thomas Tuchel is expecting continued success for the German manager.

“It’s a big difference in system and he’s been adapting personnel throughout, there’s been times where one of the centre backs step into midfield. If he had a full pre-season with the whole squad, he could get some amazing ideas across which look really complex. He’s had a period of time to get to know the players, I have a suspicion he didn’t know many of the players who played against Bournemouth,” said Nevin. “He has to find out about the whole squad, and he will start to take certain players as a project and look to make them better. Tuchel is taking every player and making them just that little bit better, he’s done it with (N’Golo) Kante, (Christian) Pulisic and Havertz so far. There’s players in preseason who I can see Tuchel has been impressed with and these are players who are so far out of the picture, so it’ll be interesting to see who plays. It’s really difficult to know what he’s going to do, but it will be exciting and I believe the players absolutely love working for him.”

Tuchel will no longer have the luxury of being new to the part and after winning the Champions League, everyone will be gunning for him. Lucky for the German coach, though, he has players like those listed above to help guide his squad again this season.