Chelsea made good use of coronavirus pandemic to sign Havertz, says Leverkusen director Voller

Bayer Leverkusen director Rudi Voller says the Covid-19 pandemic made it easier for Chelsea to sign Kai Havertz.

The Blues purchased the 21-year-old from the Bundesliga side in a deal worth £70 million (€75m/$90m) including add-ons.

Havertz, who had been with Leverkusen since the age of 11, made 150 first-team appearances in all competitions and had been linked with several top European teams before making the move to Stamford Bridge this month.

Leverkusen had not wanted to lose their star player and Voller says they would have held out for more had it not been for the financial hit they have taken as a result of the pandemic.

"[Chelsea] simply made good use of the coronavirus period," Voller told Bild. "Next year it would have been much harder for Chelsea to get Kai. [Other interested teams] preferred to hold back because of the high transfer fee in this special and uncertain time."

As well as Havertz, Leverkusen saw 28-year-old striker Kevin Volland leave for Monaco in a deal worth a reported €15m (£14m/$18m).

Although they have signed Patrik Schick from Roma and Lennart Grill from Kaiserslautern, Voller says they cannot afford to reinvest all of the money from player sales in the first team.

"We also have significant revenue losses in times of the coronavirus. We will of course take that into account and certainly not completely reinvest the transfer fee we got for Kai Havertz," he added. "Although we still have to do something to maintain the level or to improve.

"In 2019 we signed Kerem Demirbay and Nadiem Amiri, among others - both technically strong players who still have room for improvement and will prove that.

"Florian Wirtz [17-year-old attacking midfielder], too, has special abilities despite his young age. The way he takes the ball with him by pulling it straight forward is impressive. He doesn't have to turn around his own axis three times, as you often see in Bundesliga games.

“Patrik Schick's penetration and finishing skills will do our attacking game good and he will have team-mates who can showcase him and his strengths well.

“Bayern Munich are the ultimate team, then comes Borussia Dortmund. Behind that we see ourselves with three or four other teams. We want to get back in to the Champions League.”