Chelsea star Kai Havertz on dealing with raised expectations due to hefty transfer fees
Chelsea star Kai Havertz has shared his feelings regarding the raised expectations and pressure associated with the hefty transfer fee for which he was signed. Havertz has found his feet in West London and is enjoying a nice spell for the Blues this season.
The club secured the German’s services after paying £71.6million in transfer fee to Bayer Leverkusen back in 2020. Naturally, the supporters had huge expectations from the playmaker even though that proved to be counterproductive in Havertz’s bid to get accustomed to life in the Premer League.
Speaking in an interview with the club’s media (h/t Chelsea official website), Havertz revealed his thoughts regarding the matter and compared his situation with star striker Romelu Lukaku. The former added that “small things” like his goal in the Champions League final changed everyone’s perspective about his first season.
“I was not the first one in that situation, Rom [Lukaku] is not the first one, and he will not be the last one. The first season was not my best, but at the end, I scored a very important goal in a Champions League final. If I hadn’t scored it, everybody would say ‘he’s so bad’ and ‘what a disastrous first season’. I would not say that to myself because I was 21 when I came, and it’s not easy at this age. Small things can turn everything around.”
A message for us?
Just like the 22-year-old mentioned above, some fans, in general, would have considered his first season as a failure before the CL final against Manchester City. That should, however, not be the case as it only harms the players and their ability to succeed at the club.
Fortunately for the Blues forward, the all-important goal really turned around his fortunes, and he now seems settled at the club. Even though the attacker still has time before reaching the prime of his career, he has certainly developed a knack for scoring crucial goals. That being said, we as fans should learn to manage our expectations from the players by applying appropriate context.
With the Carabao Cup final against Liverpool set to take place tomorrow, we could use another decisive moment from the German international. Whether that will happen or not would only be known in due time. With seven goals and four assists to his name from 30 games this season across all competitions, let’s hope that he can add more to his tally tomorrow.
Havertz’s comments come after the backlash Romelu Lukaku has gotten in recent weeks. The big Belgian striker was dropped against Lille for Havertz, with the latter opening the scoring for us on the night. That being said, a goal in the final may well be what Lukaku needs to make this season a memorable one for himself.
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It remains to be seen who starts up front right now. On form, Havertz seems like the go-to man but Lukaku’s physique and presence inside the box still make him a nightmare for defenders to deal with. Let us hope whatever decision our manager takes turns out to be the right one tomorrow.