Mikel Arteta told Arsenal transfer strategy 'doesn't make sense' amid Kai Havertz issue

Graeme Souness has blasted Arsenal’s decision to fork out £65million to Chelsea for Kai Havertz. A busy summer saw Emirates chiefs stump up over £200million to bolster a squad that came within a whisker of winning the Premier League. Not having the depth or experience of Manchester City was viewed as a key reason for Arsenal falling at the final hurdle last season.

Havertz provides both of those, having won the Champions League — where he scored the winner in the final — and earned 39 caps for Germany at just 24. However, former Liverpool captain Souness has doubts over his quality.

«Not all of Arsenal’s spending makes sense to me,» he told the Daily Mail. «They’ve laid out £65million on Kai Havertz. Surely you’re not spending that kind of money on what he’s shown at Chelsea in the past three seasons?

»They’ve shelled out in the hope that Mikel Arteta can get a very, very different tune out of him than Frank Lampard, Thomas Tuchel or Graham Potter ever did. Good luck with that one, Mikel."

Souness also questioned his record at Chelsea, where he was predominantly used as an out-and-out striker. Arteta has played Havertz on the left of a midfield three but refused to rule out a role change if needed when speaking to reporters last month.

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«We live in a world where stats have become a very popular part of the game for the anoraks,» Souness added. «But historically only two stats provide a judgement in black and white terms. For a goalkeeper: how many games have you played and how many clean sheets did you keep? And for a striker: how many games