Pundit pins his hat on €90m man and writes off Coutinho for Chelsea

Coutinho.TEAMtalk

Frank Leboeuf says Chelsea should go all out for Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Kai Havertz rather than sign Barcelona’s Philippe Coutinho this summer.

The former Blues central defender has no doubt who Frank Lampard should pursue in the next transfer window and believes the “maturity” the 20-year-old has shown this season proves he could step into the Premier League and make an impact.

Both players have been linked with Chelsea and Havertz’s  second consecutive brace for Leverkusen in their 3-1 win over Borussia Monchengladbach on Saturday was quickly followed by talk of a bid from Chelsea.

The seven-cap Germany international has been linked with Liverpool and Manchester United but according to Todofichajes, Chelsea have now registered serious interest and are ready to submit a €90million bid to secure a deal.

Havertz now has four goals in his last two appearances since the Bundesliga’s resumption, while Coutinho has missed Bayern Munich’s last two games with an ankle problem. Bayern though have confirmed the €120m purchase option has expired on the player and he looks set to return to Barcelona after struggling to make an impact in the Bundesliga.

Asked if he had been impressed by Havertz, Leboeuf told ESPN: “Yes. I like his maturity on the field, he looks like someone who is 30 and knows exactly what he has to do and when he has to do it.

“The goal he scored was very clever, between the goalkeeper’s legs. He’s the master orchestrator of that team and I talked about him last week and I said that’s a player that I would hire for sure.

“When we were talking Chelsea about Coutinho, when you see that player [Havertz], he should be in the Premier League very soon. He should be because he’s a very, very talented player.”

Leboeuf also says he’s not sure where Coutinho would fit in at Chelsea.

“He has been poor at Barcelona and Bayern Munich and I would have lots of question marks over him. Chelsea have good young players and players who can organise like Kovacic and Jorgingo, sho I do not know where his place would be.”