Arsenal has been handed a boost in their bid to sign Philippe Coutinho this summer after one of his major suitors was advised to abandon their chase.
Chelsea is one of the teams that is fighting with Arsenal for the signature of the former Liverpool man as Frank Lampard looks to add the creative midfielder to his team.
The Blues have already made a summer signing in Hakim Ziyech, but they expect to lose Pedro and Willian for free when the transfer window reopens so they are preparing for life without both players.
Mikel Arteta is also looking to add Coutinho to his team as he can’t seem to get the best out of his current creative players.
Former Blue Frank Leboeuf has urged Chelsea to forget about Coutinho and sign Kai Havertz instead.
He told ESPN FC: “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 about Chelsea and 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.”
