Chelsea pulled off a hijack of Arsenal’s move to sign winger Mykhaylo Mudryk from Shakhtar at the weekend.
Although Chelsea always had an interest, it was always looking like he wanted to join and was destined to join Arsenal. Then Chelsea stepped it all up and went 100 miles an hour to get ahead of their London rivals to pull the signing off very fast at the weekend, before announcing him at half time at Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon.
Insider Ben Jacobs has written his latest Chelsea column for Si & Dan Talk Chelsea and as always he covers a lot, and there is a section in there on how the deal actually went down.
EXCL: @JacobsBen for @SiandDanTalkCFC
– How Mudryk deal went down
– Latest on Caicedo, Lavia, Thuram, Madueke, and more
– Outgoings
– Multi-club plans
– Sporting Director
– New wage structures
– Plus Loads morehttps://t.co/7xYm6ViC7r— TheBluesFeed (@TheBluesFeed) January 16, 2023
Jacobs says that Chelsea had no intention of paying his €100m price-tag just last week, but it was the defeat to Fulham that changed their stance and knocked them into action.
“Last week Chelsea told Shakhtar they had no intention of paying his €100m price-tag, but everything changed following the loss to Fulham,” Jacobs wrote. “And because Graham Potter had already spoken to Mudryk, Chelsea were able to move at lightening-speed following internal discussions.
“In the end, it wasn’t a difficult deal to agree because Chelsea had already held a meeting with a Shakhtar delegation at Stamford Bridge and knew what they had to pay.
“In the end, Chelsea decided to pay €100m, and although not all of the extras within that are easily ‘gettable’ the value, structure, add ons and personal terms all surpass what Arsenal were prepared to offer.
“It is true that Mudryk dreamed of Arsenal, but Edu was not going to be drawn into a bidding war. So we see via this deal the different needs and thus recruitment strategies of both Chelsea and Arsenal.
“In the end, Mudryk had to choose between staying at Shakhtar until summer or leaving for Chelsea. After Arsenal’s third bid, he was directly informed no deal had been agreed, and with Chelsea then meeting the valuation, it was reiterated to him that Arsenal were intent on walking away.”
