Wow, before I could even start getting angry at United for getting away with a bogus non-offside call, Todd Boehly and Chelsea swooped in last minute to secure a deal with Shakhtar Donetsk over the transfer of Mudryk.
It seems like it is pretty much set that Mudryk will sign as a Chelsea player and leave Arsenal at the altar. For months now, we have been linked with the player, Mudryk has not so subtly shown his affinity for Arsenal over recent weeks has it has been highly reported his first choice was Arsenal over Chelsea if it was his decision. With Arsenal haggling with Shakhtar who remained steadfast of their valuation of the player (around a €100m), it looks like Chelsea met Skakhtar’s ask with ours being €5m short as Arsenal vowed to not get into a bidding war with Chelsea smh.
MY THOUGHTS: I am 100% disappointed and frustrated with how it turned out. I am definitely conflicted though on how I feel about it for sure. First off, Mudryk is an absurdly talented footballer, his combination of direct pace and agility combined with his technical gifts, makes it easy to see why Arteta and Edu coveted this player and worked so hard to bring him to the Emirates. So I will not bash the player just because he is not going to my club. However, I do feel frustrated we couldn’t get this over the line. All things considered, we bid €95m (with add-ons) of the €100m Shakhtar wanted for Mudryk, is €5m really what is stopping us from getting the player we’ve prioritized? Part of me just thinks if we are a big club, we get the job done, and get the player to the Emirates? What makes it worse was how bad he wanted the move to North London and how it was highly reported he preferred a move to Arsenal over Chelsea.
But at the end of the day, sports is a business and Arsenal had a threshold they vowed to uphold and were not willing to meet Shakhtar’s ask for the player. Now is Mudryk worth €100m? Probably not, but who is? At the end of the day, everybody is worth what somebody is willing to pay for so I guess technically he is. With Antony going for around €85m to United and Jack Grealish going for €100m, I don’t blame the Ukrainian Club for getting as much as they can out of the deal. Mudryk is all talent at this point with just 12 goals to his young career in the Ukrainian Premier Liga and the Champions League, proven is not the first word that comes to mind when it comes to this kid but he does have 3 goals and 2 assists in this Champions League campaign. Chelsea have spent a ridiculous amount on transfers these past few windows, so how they keep getting away with it, who knows.
WHAT IT MEANS FOR ARSENAL: Well, we will see in May, won’t we. Arsenal was willing to spend upwards of €95m on a player so the money is 100% there to strengthen the squad. I agree with the Arsenal board on sticking to their guns and not getting into a bidding war with Chelsea, but now we have to make our move in this window cause we need players bad. We must have learned our lesson last year when we didn’t sign a soul for reinforcements when we sold our Captain to Barcelona and relied on our fragile squad to take us to Top 4. This year, we are fighting for a PL title and with City stumbling, this is a supreme chance to make this title ours. I won’t get mad at Edu and Arsenal now as we have rest of January to make moves but deals are needed now and with us not spending on Mudryk, there is an opportunity for us to spend on multiple players instead of the one. At the end of the day, we will have to wait for May and the future 3-4 years to see if we missed out on this talent, Arteta usually has a decent eye so it looks like a tough miss on our end but only time will tell. SIGN SOME PLAYERS ARSENAL
Twitter Credits: Fabrizio Romano, David Ornstein, CFCMod_
