Chelsea Outsmart Arsenal, Agree €100m Mudryk deal with Shaktar

Chelsea have outsmarted Premier League table-topping rivals, Arsenal in the race to sign Shakhtar Donetsk winger, Mykhailo Mudryk for €100 million.

Arsenal have had Mudryk on their radar for a while, and had gone ahead to submit a €95 million bid on Thursday night for the Ukranian winger, which includes; €70 million fee and €25 million add ons, when broken down.

However, in a turn of events, transfer expert, Fabrizio Romano, exclusively reported on Saturday night that Chelsea board was in Poland trying to reach verbal agreement with Shakhtar  to hijack the deal from Arsenal with a €100 million offer.

An hour after agreement had been reached, he further revealed that Mudryk would fly to London on Saturday night in order to discuss details, with Chelsea pushing a long-term deal of seven years, which would mean 22-year-old Mudryk will play at Stamford till 2030.

Also, Shakhtar  has released an official statement confirming the transfer saying, “Shakhtar president Akhmetov and Chelsea co-owner Behdad Eghbali discussed Mykhailo Mudryk’s transfer to Chelsea FC today (Saturday). Parties are very close to agree on player’s transfer to club.”

With medical tests booked for Sunday (today), and Mudryk flying to London with his agent, Chelsea are hoping to get the transfer done and sealed this weekend.

Although, Mudryk had always preferred to play for Arsenal, with the winger posting  Arsenal matches a couple of times on his social media, fans had assumed that his move to Arsenal was a done deal.

Meanwhile, Chelsea have had quite a rough season so far and are currently 10th on the Premier League table.

They suffered their eighth EPL defeat of the season in a bruising 2-1 loss away to Fulham on Thursday, with new signing Joao Felix bagging a red card on his debut for the Blues only a day after signing on loan from Atletico Madrid.

With Aubameyang set to leave Stamford Bridge after underperforming since joining the Blues in September 2022 from Barcelona and Joao Felix out for the next three games against Crystal Palace, Liverpool and Fulham, Chelsea in a more desperate move have chanced Arsenal to lead the race in signing Mudryk.

THE PUNCH