Chelsea drops interest for Coutinho, Pursue Havertz

Chelsea have dropped interest in Philippe Coutinho to sort after Bayer Leverkusen’s Kai Havertz.

Havertz have taken Bundesliga by storm, leading Leverkusen’s push for a Champions League spot with impressive displays in the last two weeks, scoring four goals. 

Haverz display have seen number of top clubs across Europe take note, among them the London club, and their former defender Frank Leboeuf has spoken highly of the 20-year-old. 

“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,” he told ESPN FC. “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.”

Coutinho is currently on loan at Bayern Munichfrom Barcelona but is expected to leave at the end of the season.

The Bundesliga defending champions failed to trigger the option of making the Brazilian’s loan stay permanent, opting to let it expire.

“The option expired and we haven’t activated it. We’re going to plan our squad for next season and we’ll see if he still has a role to play with us or not,” said Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. 

The former Liverpool man has posted eight goals and six assists in 22 league outings for the German side.