Chelsea: Mykhaylo Mudryk ‘flying to UK for medical’ as Arsenal set for transfer heartbreak | Football | Sport
Mykhaylo Mudryk is flying into London tonight (Saturday) to discuss personal terms with Chelsea and to undergo a medical to join the club. Arsenal have looked the likeliest side to sign the Ukrainian throughout the January transfer window with the Shakhtar Donetsk attacker posting numerous hints on social media that he wants to join the Gunners. But Chelsea have now hijacked Arsenal’s move.
The Blues have agreed an £88million package with Shakhtar to sign Mudryk and Fabrizio Romano reports that the forward is flying to the UK. He posted: “Understand Mykhaylo Mudryk is now on a plane flying to London. His future enters into key, final stages as Chelsea have offered contract valid until June 2030. Chelsea hope to get it sealed this weekend. Arsenal keep their position, bid made to Mudryk won’t change.”
The transfer expert had already revealed on Saturday evening that Chelsea had reached an agreement with Shakhtar to sign Mudryk. The Blues have committed to paying £88m for the player, with around £62m guaranteed and the rest – approximately £26.5m – made up in add-ons.
Shakhtar’s English Twitter account tweeted before 7pm: “FC Shakhtar president Rinat Akhmetov and Chelsea co-owner Behdad Eghbali discussed Mykhailo Mudryk’s transfer to Chelsea FC today. Parties are very close to agree on player’s transfer to the club.”
The Blues followed up with several teasing posts of their own, including a post that quote-tweeted the above Shakhtar statement and added an emoji of a pair of wide eyes and an Instagram story upload that featured a picture of Mudryk with a link to his page captioned: “Time to drop him a follow here!”
TRANSFER NEWS LIVE: Chelsea launch £88m Mudryk hijack, Arsenal in talks
Mudryk’s priority has always been to join Arsenal but it appears he is heading towards Stamford Bridge instead. Shakhtar are said to have been in talks with Arsenal recently but the Gunners have vowed not to get into a bidding war. As such, it looks like they will let Mudryk join their London rivals instead.
The Athletic claim the lightning-quick wide-man has already agreed personal fees with Chelsea and will sign a seven-year-plus contract. Mudryk is said to have been made aware of Chelsea’s growing interest in recent days.
Graham Potter’s side have lost five of their last eight Premier League matches but have been busy off the pitch trying to improve their playing squad. David Datro Fofana joined from Molde for up to £10m while Chelsea paid Monaco £33m for Benoit Badiashile, who signed a huge seven-and-a-half-year contract.
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Andrey Santos was the next addition, joining from Brazil’s Vasco de Gama for £18m, before Joao Felix joined on loan from Atletico Madrid for £10m. The Portugal striker was however sent off on his debut at Fulham on Thursday and now faces a three-match ban that will rule him out until February.
If the Londoners can beat Arsenal to Mudryk, the 22-year-old would become their fifth addition of a hectic January window that still has another two weeks to run. Potter will hope to get a deal done in time for Mudryk to play against Liverpool next Saturday (January 21).
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