Mykhailo Mudryk shocked the football world when he took a U-turn on his potential move to Arsenal by joining fierce London rivals Chelsea.
When Fabrizio Romano reported that Chelsea were trying to hijack Arsenal’s potential deal for Mudryk, I felt it was serious as unlike the Enzo deal with Benfica, Chelsea had been lingering in the background already for Mudryk for a while and furthermore, Boehly had tried to hijack deals multiple times last summer, namely Richarlison who ended up joining Spurs and Raphinha, who ended up joining Barcelona after Chelsea pipped Arsenal to an agreed fee in what looked like being a hijack at the time.
Chelsea co-owner Behdad Eghbali flew to Poland with Paul Winstanley who recently joined from Brighton as a recruitment chief to finalise terms with Shaktar officials in just a matter of hours.
Behdad took a scene from something you’d see in mobster films, taking no chances by making sure Mudryk was on the private jet back with them to complete his transfer to Chelsea Football Club.
Did Mudryk turn on Arsenal?
Mykhailo’s activity on social media is what made this hijack and saga an interesting development. The 22 year old Ukrainian was liking posts about Arsenal and the possibility of him joining them pretty much every single day.
The player was clearly entertaining the idea to the point most football fans including myself thought he’d be an Arsenal player before the window was shut and potentially even reject Chelsea’s advances.
As it turned out, he swiftly agreed personal terms with Chelsea on the same day as the hijack. Shaktar’s CEO Sergei Palkin came out a day after the deal was completed to The Athletic and stated that Chelsea’s offer had preferable terms with the payment structure and bonuses.
Palkin also suggested Chelsea were “more realistic” with the bonuses and that they were more achievable than Arsenal’s, these included Chelsea winning the champions league and premier league, a funny dig towards Arsenal perhaps.
He also went on to mention that Chelsea worked on the transfer for 9-10 hours at once, presenting the club’s project and vision to Mudryk before completing the deal.
Taking in the facts from how much he wanted to move to Arsenal to the fact that he then agreed personal terms in a flash with Chelsea, I see Mudryk as a hugely ambitious individual who was just desperate for a move to one of Europe’s elite clubs to further showcase his talent and up his levels even more, which can only be positive signs from Chelsea’s point of view.
Transfer terms, wages and amortisation :
Mudryk joined Chelsea on a £62m / €70m initial fee without any bonuses included.
On the surface that looks somewhat impressive for a player who recently turned 22 years old with so much talent, upside and the rare ability in modern wingers to also work hard defensively.
The seven and a half year contract with an option to extend for a further year given to Mudryk in this deal will help Chelsea spread out payments for FFP purposes with so many years on his deal.
“In the case of Mudryk, his £88.6m fee will therefore by divided by the 8½ year contract and gives an annual cost for FFP purposes of just over £10 million a year, and for the season ending 2022-23 it will be half that as he has been signed in January”
Kieran Maguire, FFP expert
In terms of wages, The Athletic have revealed Mudryk is on around 97,000 pounds a week, which seems like a bargain in comparison to Chelsea’s squad.
Plus, If Mudryk were to fulfill his potential at Chelsea and win the big trophies for the bonuses (UCL + EPL) no one would care about the €100m full fee or the wages he is on.
Player background & story :
Mudryk joined Shaktar in 2016 and rose up their youth academy before going on a couple loans and returning. In the past 2 seasons the club put a lot of stock into him to become a key player and he sure didn’t disappoint.
“Mykhailo is a top player. He has the potential to win the Ballon d’Or in the future. Also, he’s a sensitive young man, he needs affection to give his best.”
Roberto De Zerbi, Brighton manager
Mudryk is a player that is big on faith, having tattoos including one saying “only Jesus” while he talks about his beliefs a lot. When interviewed by Chelsea he mentioned Cristiano Ronaldo as an inspiration, taking after his mentality of hard work to make it to the top.
The player also has a tattoo saying “talent ain’t enough” to show you where his head is at just 22 years old, he is a hard worker and you will see that reflect during games tracking back defensively, as well as constant gym sessions and extra training.
I think we have a fearless young person with a healthy amount of confidence to deal with the pressure of turning down the Arsenal red for Chelsea blue.
Player Profile, Data & More :
Mudryk likes to get on the ball and be extremely direct with his play, lots of cut ins to shoot, lots of dribbles and is extremely unpredictable as he has the ability to decelerate as fast as he accelerates. He is also credited with being two footed, adding an extra weapon to his arsenal (no pun intended, lol)
He finished 8th in the UCL groups for dribbles completed with the list of players ahead of him including names such as Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Rafael Leao.
What makes Mudryk different to another speedster Chelsea recently had on the left hand side in Timo Werner is the technical difference between both, with Mudryk an expert in dribbling out of tight spaces, something Timo struggled with when playing against deep blocks and being surrounded by opposition defenders.
Christopher Vivell and last thoughts :
Mudryk played RB Leipzig on the 1st match day of this season’s UEFA Champions League, finishing with 1G 2A in what was one of his best performances on the biggest stage of club football.
Christopher Viivell, now employed as Chelsea’s technical director, was working at RB Leipzig at the time when Mudryk showed his future superstar status in front of him on that night.
It’s been reported by Fabrizio Romano that Chelsea have been keeping tabs on the player since late August, but to press on & complete the transfer in January tells me the ownership are listening to the new directors they have hired.
I would like to think that Christopher Vivell had a clear idea of the player after watching his performances vs Leipzig and voiced his opinion on the deal before the club proceeded as he is currently Co-working on Chelsea’s transfer targets with Paul Winstanley.
All in all, I was definitely surprised when it happened, however I believe that Mudryk is a profile we need as we lack this type of extraordinary pace and dribbling ability in our frontline.
I like the gamble that they took and I’m optimistic it could work out, however it’ll be controversial in some fans eyes as such big money for a young player who has for the majority of the time shown his ability in the Ukrainian league will not be as tasty to take in as a player like Rafael Leao who has shown immense talent in a top league like the Serie A.
Whatever view you hold on the Mykhalio Mudryk transfer, there is no doubt that Chelsea’s new ownership is trying to rebuild a team in all sorts of mess to a team that not only has the individual ability to compete with the best, but a team that also is hungry enough to sustain success year on year.
