NOW CHELSEA GO ALL OUT FOR £75M HAVERTZ
EXCLUSIVE By IAN LADYMAN and SAMI MOKBEL
CHELSEA will attempt another raid on the Bundesliga with a move for Bayer Leverkusen starlet Kai Havertz. Expected to seal the £53million transfer of RB Leipzig centre forward Timo Werner when the transfer window opens, Chelsea also want a young player to replace the outgoing Brazilian Willian and Spaniard Pedro. It is understood that 20-yearold Havertz is the player they want, though they will face fierce competition from other top European clubs. Havertz has scored five goals in four games since the resumption of the Bundesliga and is on the radar of Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. The midfielder has a market value of around £75m and his contract runs to 2022. But Chelsea are determined to make up for time lost while under transfer embargo last summer. Havertz has been in the Leverkusen first team since he was 17 and has seven caps for Germany. Bayer’s sporting director Simon Rolfes said: ‘Kai is a fantastic player, but we have to wait. His future is not decided yet.’ Meanwhile, Chelsea midfielder Tino Anjorin, 18, has signed a new five-year deal.
PREMIERSHIP clubs agreed yesterday to cut their annual salary cap by £1million to avert the growing threat of financial calamity.
Owners of the elite clubs met via video conference call and addressed the issue of wage budgets, days after agreeing to implement the reforms proposed in the Myners report. As revealed by Mail
Online, a new cap of £5m has been agreed, plus the option of using ‘credits’ totalling up to an additional £1m, for an upper limit of £6m.
The current cap is £6.4m, with top-ups taking the maximum to £7m. So while the