11 Comments

Great piece, and I love that arrested development meme!

I would love to see him come to Arsenal as he’s one of the most technically gifted players with speed and acceleration that I’ve seen and he’s more than willing to put in the defensive work. But, the price does concern me in terms of wages (and in terms of transfer fee if it gets to 60M+). That said, I have to think that if Arsenal have already ironed out personal terms, his wages will be coming down considerably from his time at Chelsea.

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Superb piece Billy. One thing that I worry with Havertz in the team is that Rice's strengths may be under-utilized (especially if Rice is deployed at the bottom of a diamond). I was honestly hoping that Rice performs the role that Xhaka performed, until the Havertz links messed up my calculus. That said, I do agree with you- there is a player in there, and a damn good one. There are a few people who can fix him, and Mikel is one of those.

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Yeah, I agree that I really want to avoid Rice playing an approximation of the English 6 in possession. I think that’s probably avoidable in any case, because: Arteta.

If you look at those four lineup diagrams you can see how Rice can shift around a bit at both, which I think’ll be nice for the first year (at least)

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King Kai Donkey Kong!

Thanks Billy, now I'm infatuated with another player I hadn't even considered 5 minutes ago. The price is hard to comprehend but hey, the red peppers in the shop across the road have increased by 150% since the so-called price of living crisis started so who knows how much a living breathing footballer should be these days.

Great write up as per.

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Landed here courtesy of LeGrove on Twitter — and am I glad I did!

Great read!

I'm in the 'positive view' side of this potential transfer; the article just reinforced that belief.

Let's hope for that King Kai magic at the carpet in a few weeks!

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Great read

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Great article and fun read!

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Thanks for the thread.

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Fantastic analysis. I agree Havertz would be a savvy signing, if don't pay more than 60 million (ideally closer to 50).

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Great article. Sold on him for £55M.

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the sigh kavertz vs king kai maps are wild in that he was essentially playing on two different teams if i'm reading them correctly. the chelsea situation is such a basket case that it must be really challenging to assess players coming from there, but, to be reductive, buying talent and effort seems to be a good strategy. it's going to work for us babyyy!

thanks again billy for a great read!

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