🇺🇦 Mykhaylo Mudryk

[Vesper 30,182]

1 hour ago, Blue Armour said:

Not the first time I'm seeing Rudiger top these lists. When he joined the prem, he clocked among the top 2 highest speeds recorded.

He is a bullet train when he gets going.

Not bad for a player that once suffered a serious knee injury.

which is why I still have some hope that Wesley Fofana can fully recover

before that horrid leg break, he was in my top 10 (at peak top 5) CBs to buy lists all the time

[NikkiCFC 8,324]

“Overall, it was the same [offer]. Not approximately the same — it was the same figure. The fixed part, variable part, bonuses. But if you look inside the fixed part and bonuses, it was completely different.

“Different time (schedule) of the payments, different kinds of bonuses. Yes, we can talk about bonuses, but these bonuses should be somehow achievable and realistic, let’s say. Therefore, in this case, Chelsea was much more serious and fair in some points.

“When we met Chelsea, we stayed all together. For you to understand the context, it was for nine or 10 hours. They invited the player and explained to us the whole project. We realised that, yes, if you look right now, Chelsea have some kinds of problems but it is normal because they have a transition period from one owner to another. It is understandable. They would like to change a lot.

“So when they explain to you the whole story and you look for the next two, three, four, five years, then you see they have a serious project. I believe they will build one of the best clubs in the world because I am telling you, they are very serious in all directions: sports science, the stadium side, the commercial side, on all things. For us, they looked very ambitious.”

-Sergei Palkin; source: The Athletic

Edited January 17, 2023 by NikkiCFC

[YorkshireBlue 3,277]

1 hour ago, NikkiCFC said:

“Overall, it was the same [offer]. Not approximately the same — it was the same figure. The fixed part, variable part, bonuses. But if you look inside the fixed part and bonuses, it was completely different.

“Different time (schedule) of the payments, different kinds of bonuses. Yes, we can talk about bonuses, but these bonuses should be somehow achievable and realistic, let’s say. Therefore, in this case, Chelsea was much more serious and fair in some points.

“When we met Chelsea, we stayed all together. For you to understand the context, it was for nine or 10 hours. They invited the player and explained to us the whole project. We realised that, yes, if you look right now, Chelsea have some kinds of problems but it is normal because they have a transition period from one owner to another. It is understandable. They would like to change a lot.

“So when they explain to you the whole story and you look for the next two, three, four, five years, then you see they have a serious project. I believe they will build one of the best clubs in the world because I am telling you, they are very serious in all directions: sports science, the stadium side, the commercial side, on all things. For us, they looked very ambitious.”

-Sergei Palkin; source: The Athletic

Can't be true, our fans say they don't have a clue what they are doing! Surely they know better than another club owner 🤣🤣

Edited January 17, 2023 by YorkshireBlue

[Vesper 30,182]

Exclusive: Why Mykhailo Mudryk joined Chelsea not Arsenal – by Shakhtar’s CEO

https://theathletic.com/4096686/2023/01/17/shakhtar-donetsk-ceo-why-mudryk-Chelsea-not-arsenal/

Chelsea poached Mykhailo Mudryk from under the noses of Premier League leaders, and London rivals, Arsenal over the weekend.

At €100million (£88.7m, $108.2m), the deal is a record for a Ukrainian player and for Shakhtar Donetsk, who sold him.

The 22-year-old winger was paraded on the pitch at half-time during Chelsea’s 1-0 win over Crystal Palace on Sunday, after signing a seven-and-a-half-year contract.

Here, Shakhtar chief executive Sergei Palkin tells The Athletic’s Adam Crafton:

• How Arsenal first made contact with the player “in October or November” last year — a month before their interest was formalised with Shakhtar
• That the two London clubs offered the same amount for Mudryk, but the add-ons built into Chelsea’s bid were more “achievable and realistic”
• Why Shakhtar suspected a sale might get pushed back to the summer until Chelsea’s interest crystalised last week
• How Chelsea’s new owners are overseeing a project to “build one of the best clubs in the world”
• Chelsea co-owner Behdad Eghbali proposed a future friendly against Shakhtar in Donetsk.

---

Adam Crafton: A lot of supporters of Premier League clubs are fascinated by this transfer. It looked like Mudryk would go to Arsenal but then, in the space of 24 hours, he joined Chelsea. When did you realise Chelsea would be the destination?

Sergei Palkin: I realised two days ago (Saturday) when Chelsea arrived here — the co-owner Behdad Eghbali and (director of global talent and transfers) Paul Winstanley. They came to Antalya in Turkey (where Shakhtar have been at a training camp during their domestic season’s winter break). Before Chelsea arrived, I did not know they were close, because I communicated with Arsenal in the same way as I had with Chelsea. Even I can tell you more: I met Arsenal more times than Chelsea. Therefore, before this last meeting, Arsenal was close, or a little bit closer to this deal than Chelsea.

https://theathletic.com/podcast/144-athletic-football-podcast/?episode=512

How many times did you meet Arsenal?

If you don’t count telephone conversations, it was three times.

From our conversations with sources close to the deal, the impression I have is that Arsenal were confident you would have found a compromise with them, and we had even seen the player himself on social media watching Arsenal matches. What, in your view, changed things? Was it the willingness of Chelsea to fly to Turkey and to meet the figure?

From my point of view, (this) is why everybody talked about Arsenal. It is because Arsenal contacted the player almost one and a half months before they contacted us. Can you imagine, for example, to have (the Arsenal coach) Mikel Arteta, (Arsenal’s Ukrainian player) Oleksandr Zinchenko and the sporting director (Edu) calling you, to have Arsenal calling you almost every day, every two days, every three days? You can want or not want the move but you follow this kind of reception and contacts. If you talk about Chelsea, they called me at the end of December and asked if they can contact Mudryk because they are interested in him and want to talk with him. I said, ‘No problem, you can contact him’. The first time they contacted him was around the end of December or the start of January. They contacted the player and the agent of the player and they met the financial conditions. Therefore, why did many people around it have the impression that Mudryk was going to Arsenal? It is because Arsenal contacted him and then Mudryk started to watch some games of Arsenal. But negotiations are negotiations. When you didn’t close everything, when you did not (close) the last dot, then you cannot finish the deal. Therefore it was just an outside visual impression that Mudryk is close to Arsenal.

GO DEEPER

Is Mykhailo Mudryk - Chelsea's prospective new striker - really worth the hype?

Were any other clubs close to a deal?

There were some contacts but not serious. So it was just two clubs.

Did you ask Arsenal whether it was right for them to contact the player before they spoke to the club? Normally, clubs make a complaint when that happens.

When I met Arsenal and they mentioned they had already talked to the player and they had contacted the player, to be honest, I knew beforehand that they had started to contact him. I said, ‘OK, you start to contact him but first of all you should close it with us’. But OK, we have what we have.

So you didn’t make a formal complaint to FIFA?

We didn’t do a formal complaint. They did what they did.

Our understanding is that in the final offers from the two clubs, the total figures were basically the same but the difference was the speed of payments. Is that correct?

Overall, it was the same. Not approximately the same — it was the same figure. The fixed part, variable part, bonuses. But if you look inside the fixed part and bonuses, it was completely different.

In what way?

Different time (schedule) of the payments, different kinds of bonuses. Yes, we can talk about bonuses, but these bonuses should be somehow achievable and realistic, let’s say. Therefore, in this case, Chelsea was much more serious and fair in some points. When we met Chelsea, we stayed all together. For you to understand the context, it was for nine or 10 hours. They invited the player and explained to us the whole project. We realised that, yes, if you look right now, Chelsea have some kinds of problems but it is normal because they have a transition period from one owner to another. It is understandable. They would like to change a lot. So when they explain to you the whole story and you look for the next two, three, four, five years, then you see they have a serious project. I believe they will build one of the best clubs in the world because I am telling you, they are very serious in all directions: sports science, the stadium side, the commercial side, on all things. For us, they looked very ambitious.

Our information is that the Chelsea deal includes add-ons if they win the Premier League or Champions League. Is that accurate?

Yes. It has these kinds of bonuses.

Is there a clause relating to Mudryk winning the Ballon d’Or? 

Chelsea’s offer has no Ballon d’Or (clause). It is achievable bonuses that we feel, and they feel, can be reached. Maybe not this year but in the next two, three or four years.

There’s no deadline then? If they win the Premier League or Champions League in 2029, the bonuses still apply?

It’s eight years, or seven and a half. The length of contract is eight years — seven plus one.

Did Mudryk ever say to you, ‘Let me leave in January’? Or would he have waited until the summer if you had not permitted a transfer?

We had no detailed discussions with Mudryk. He was professional, he did not push us. He did not want to meet us to ask why we had not sold him or complain he had not been sold for €50million, €60million. We just said, ‘Mykhailo, we are running negotiations. We want to help you and we believe that we will finalise it, so just relax, train properly and that’s it’. There was no pressure from his side or the agent’s side. Maybe you even saw his agent do an interview to say Mudryk is professional, training well and that they respect he belongs to Shakhtar.

Did he speak to Chelsea head coach Graham Potter before joining the club?

Mykhailo spoke with him this weekend.

On Monday, Shakhtar president Rinat Akhmetov announced that his team will play a friendly with Chelsea in Donetsk (when and if that area of Ukraine is no longer occupied by Russian forces). Can you clarify if this is actually written into the transfer agreement?

Yes, it is written into the contract. But actually, we did not even need to read it in the contract because Behdad spoke with our president. Behdad supports Ukraine a lot because he is American and it is an English club, so for us this is a positive triangle because when you say England and Ukraine, it is important for our war support at this moment. They spoke very well and shook hands. I know because I translated. I liked the conversation very much and I believe that it does not matter if it is in the contract or not. It was Behdad who proposed (the friendly), because he said he wanted to help Ukraine, to help Ukrainian refugees and to support Ukrainian people. For us, this match (in Donetsk) would be like a miracle (having not played in their home city since 2014). We would have this match every weekend if we could.

Was their conversation with Akhmetov by phone?

Yes, on the phone. He has never left Ukraine since the beginning of the war.

It has been reported that $25million from the deal will go directly to assist the medical and psychological needs of soldiers who have defended Mariupol in Ukraine, or the families who have lost loved ones.

No, it is our president’s own money. He will donate it himself to the fund. They are organising a fund to help the defenders of Mariupol and the families of the defenders who lost their husbands and fathers.

From the wider reporting, it appeared that Arsenal made a final offer on Thursday or Friday. Did you speak to Arsenal to tell them it was all done with Chelsea?

Before Chelsea arrived in Turkey, we almost agreed with Arsenal that there was no chance to close (the deal). When they proposed the final offer of €70million plus €30million (in add-ons), we sat down and started to talk internally about how it will be fulfilled in terms of the payments, the fixed part and the bonus issues. We realised we will not close this deal (with Arsenal). I said to Edu that I did my best but it was not possible.

So it was a relief when Chelsea then came?

When Chelsea arrived, they just called and said, ‘OK, we know you negotiated with Arsenal, we know you are close with some kind of figures. We want to meet’. I said, ‘OK, let’s meet’. I told Muydrk, ‘If I do not sell you in winter, we will definitely sell you in the summer’. I said, ‘Maybe you will cost even more in summertime’. We were ready to accept different scenarios. We would not be rushed.

So while meeting Chelsea, did you need to keep a poker face to say Arsenal are still involved?

But this football world is quite close. I know for sure that everybody knows what is going on. From (the) Arsenal side, Chelsea side, these kinds of negotiations involve a lot of people. A lot of journalists are around it, too. A lot of guys who can provide some kind of info. So, everyone knows what is going on.

It’s a record deal for a Ukrainian footballer. What does this mean for Ukraine right now? To have somebody promoted globally in the biggest league in the world, to have an ambassador with the Ukrainian flag (which Mudryk wore as he greeted the crowd on Sunday) at Stamford Bridge…

For social media alone, the coverage was something like 60 million across those platforms. I am not counting newspapers or TV channels. Ukraine got absolutely top-level coverage across the world, and for us it is positive promotion of our country. Mudryk became an ambassador of Ukraine across the world. I like very much that he went to the Premier League because it is the best league in the world, and also England supports Ukraine a lot. It is one of the best countries for that, which is very important for us. For the whole world and Ukraine, it is an important transfer. We have context in this transfer: American owners, England, Ukraine – this triangle. Today, we are as close as ever. It is an important point.

This time last year, Chelsea were owned by (Russian oligarch) Roman Abramovich. He faced sanctions from the British government before Chelsea were sold to the new ownership. Now the club is a very different place. Is that important as well?

I think yes, because if there was no new owner of Chelsea, there would be a lot of critics in respect of us, because of these kinds of connections.

Probably impossible (to make this deal in those circumstances)?

Maybe even impossible.

GO DEEPER

Mudryk deal a statement of intent and shows Chelsea owners are fully behind Potter

Edited January 17, 2023 by Vesper

[bluesman2610 1,417]

37 minutes ago, Vesper said:

Exclusive: Why Mykhailo Mudryk joined Chelsea not Arsenal – by Shakhtar’s CEO

https://theathletic.com/4096686/2023/01/17/shakhtar-donetsk-ceo-why-mudryk-Chelsea-not-arsenal/

Chelsea poached Mykhailo Mudryk from under the noses of Premier League leaders, and London rivals, Arsenal over the weekend.

At €100million (£88.7m, $108.2m), the deal is a record for a Ukrainian player and for Shakhtar Donetsk, who sold him.

The 22-year-old winger was paraded on the pitch at half-time during Chelsea’s 1-0 win over Crystal Palace on Sunday, after signing a seven-and-a-half-year contract.

Here, Shakhtar chief executive Sergei Palkin tells The Athletic’s Adam Crafton:

• How Arsenal first made contact with the player “in October or November” last year — a month before their interest was formalised with Shakhtar
• That the two London clubs offered the same amount for Mudryk, but the add-ons built into Chelsea’s bid were more “achievable and realistic”
• Why Shakhtar suspected a sale might get pushed back to the summer until Chelsea’s interest crystalised last week
• How Chelsea’s new owners are overseeing a project to “build one of the best clubs in the world”
• Chelsea co-owner Behdad Eghbali proposed a future friendly against Shakhtar in Donetsk.

---

Adam Crafton: A lot of supporters of Premier League clubs are fascinated by this transfer. It looked like Mudryk would go to Arsenal but then, in the space of 24 hours, he joined Chelsea. When did you realise Chelsea would be the destination?

Sergei Palkin: I realised two days ago (Saturday) when Chelsea arrived here — the co-owner Behdad Eghbali and (director of global talent and transfers) Paul Winstanley. They came to Antalya in Turkey (where Shakhtar have been at a training camp during their domestic season’s winter break). Before Chelsea arrived, I did not know they were close, because I communicated with Arsenal in the same way as I had with Chelsea. Even I can tell you more: I met Arsenal more times than Chelsea. Therefore, before this last meeting, Arsenal was close, or a little bit closer to this deal than Chelsea.

https://theathletic.com/podcast/144-athletic-football-podcast/?episode=512

How many times did you meet Arsenal?

If you don’t count telephone conversations, it was three times.

From our conversations with sources close to the deal, the impression I have is that Arsenal were confident you would have found a compromise with them, and we had even seen the player himself on social media watching Arsenal matches. What, in your view, changed things? Was it the willingness of Chelsea to fly to Turkey and to meet the figure?

From my point of view, (this) is why everybody talked about Arsenal. It is because Arsenal contacted the player almost one and a half months before they contacted us. Can you imagine, for example, to have (the Arsenal coach) Mikel Arteta, (Arsenal’s Ukrainian player) Oleksandr Zinchenko and the sporting director (Edu) calling you, to have Arsenal calling you almost every day, every two days, every three days? You can want or not want the move but you follow this kind of reception and contacts. If you talk about Chelsea, they called me at the end of December and asked if they can contact Mudryk because they are interested in him and want to talk with him. I said, ‘No problem, you can contact him’. The first time they contacted him was around the end of December or the start of January. They contacted the player and the agent of the player and they met the financial conditions. Therefore, why did many people around it have the impression that Mudryk was going to Arsenal? It is because Arsenal contacted him and then Mudryk started to watch some games of Arsenal. But negotiations are negotiations. When you didn’t close everything, when you did not (close) the last dot, then you cannot finish the deal. Therefore it was just an outside visual impression that Mudryk is close to Arsenal.

GO DEEPER

Is Mykhailo Mudryk - Chelsea's prospective new striker - really worth the hype?

Were any other clubs close to a deal?

There were some contacts but not serious. So it was just two clubs.

Did you ask Arsenal whether it was right for them to contact the player before they spoke to the club? Normally, clubs make a complaint when that happens.

When I met Arsenal and they mentioned they had already talked to the player and they had contacted the player, to be honest, I knew beforehand that they had started to contact him. I said, ‘OK, you start to contact him but first of all you should close it with us’. But OK, we have what we have.

So you didn’t make a formal complaint to FIFA?

We didn’t do a formal complaint. They did what they did.

Our understanding is that in the final offers from the two clubs, the total figures were basically the same but the difference was the speed of payments. Is that correct?

Overall, it was the same. Not approximately the same — it was the same figure. The fixed part, variable part, bonuses. But if you look inside the fixed part and bonuses, it was completely different.

In what way?

Different time (schedule) of the payments, different kinds of bonuses. Yes, we can talk about bonuses, but these bonuses should be somehow achievable and realistic, let’s say. Therefore, in this case, Chelsea was much more serious and fair in some points. When we met Chelsea, we stayed all together. For you to understand the context, it was for nine or 10 hours. They invited the player and explained to us the whole project. We realised that, yes, if you look right now, Chelsea have some kinds of problems but it is normal because they have a transition period from one owner to another. It is understandable. They would like to change a lot. So when they explain to you the whole story and you look for the next two, three, four, five years, then you see they have a serious project. I believe they will build one of the best clubs in the world because I am telling you, they are very serious in all directions: sports science, the stadium side, the commercial side, on all things. For us, they looked very ambitious.

Our information is that the Chelsea deal includes add-ons if they win the Premier League or Champions League. Is that accurate?

Yes. It has these kinds of bonuses.

Is there a clause relating to Mudryk winning the Ballon d’Or? 

Chelsea’s offer has no Ballon d’Or (clause). It is achievable bonuses that we feel, and they feel, can be reached. Maybe not this year but in the next two, three or four years.

There’s no deadline then? If they win the Premier League or Champions League in 2029, the bonuses still apply?

It’s eight years, or seven and a half. The length of contract is eight years — seven plus one.

Did Mudryk ever say to you, ‘Let me leave in January’? Or would he have waited until the summer if you had not permitted a transfer?

We had no detailed discussions with Mudryk. He was professional, he did not push us. He did not want to meet us to ask why we had not sold him or complain he had not been sold for €50million, €60million. We just said, ‘Mykhailo, we are running negotiations. We want to help you and we believe that we will finalise it, so just relax, train properly and that’s it’. There was no pressure from his side or the agent’s side. Maybe you even saw his agent do an interview to say Mudryk is professional, training well and that they respect he belongs to Shakhtar.

Did he speak to Chelsea head coach Graham Potter before joining the club?

Mykhailo spoke with him this weekend.

On Monday, Shakhtar president Rinat Akhmetov announced that his team will play a friendly with Chelsea in Donetsk (when and if that area of Ukraine is no longer occupied by Russian forces). Can you clarify if this is actually written into the transfer agreement?

Yes, it is written into the contract. But actually, we did not even need to read it in the contract because Behdad spoke with our president. Behdad supports Ukraine a lot because he is American and it is an English club, so for us this is a positive triangle because when you say England and Ukraine, it is important for our war support at this moment. They spoke very well and shook hands. I know because I translated. I liked the conversation very much and I believe that it does not matter if it is in the contract or not. It was Behdad who proposed (the friendly), because he said he wanted to help Ukraine, to help Ukrainian refugees and to support Ukrainian people. For us, this match (in Donetsk) would be like a miracle (having not played in their home city since 2014). We would have this match every weekend if we could.

Was their conversation with Akhmetov by phone?

Yes, on the phone. He has never left Ukraine since the beginning of the war.

It has been reported that $25million from the deal will go directly to assist the medical and psychological needs of soldiers who have defended Mariupol in Ukraine, or the families who have lost loved ones.

No, it is our president’s own money. He will donate it himself to the fund. They are organising a fund to help the defenders of Mariupol and the families of the defenders who lost their husbands and fathers.

From the wider reporting, it appeared that Arsenal made a final offer on Thursday or Friday. Did you speak to Arsenal to tell them it was all done with Chelsea?

Before Chelsea arrived in Turkey, we almost agreed with Arsenal that there was no chance to close (the deal). When they proposed the final offer of €70million plus €30million (in add-ons), we sat down and started to talk internally about how it will be fulfilled in terms of the payments, the fixed part and the bonus issues. We realised we will not close this deal (with Arsenal). I said to Edu that I did my best but it was not possible.

So it was a relief when Chelsea then came?

When Chelsea arrived, they just called and said, ‘OK, we know you negotiated with Arsenal, we know you are close with some kind of figures. We want to meet’. I said, ‘OK, let’s meet’. I told Muydrk, ‘If I do not sell you in winter, we will definitely sell you in the summer’. I said, ‘Maybe you will cost even more in summertime’. We were ready to accept different scenarios. We would not be rushed.

So while meeting Chelsea, did you need to keep a poker face to say Arsenal are still involved?

But this football world is quite close. I know for sure that everybody knows what is going on. From (the) Arsenal side, Chelsea side, these kinds of negotiations involve a lot of people. A lot of journalists are around it, too. A lot of guys who can provide some kind of info. So, everyone knows what is going on.

It’s a record deal for a Ukrainian footballer. What does this mean for Ukraine right now? To have somebody promoted globally in the biggest league in the world, to have an ambassador with the Ukrainian flag (which Mudryk wore as he greeted the crowd on Sunday) at Stamford Bridge…

For social media alone, the coverage was something like 60 million across those platforms. I am not counting newspapers or TV channels. Ukraine got absolutely top-level coverage across the world, and for us it is positive promotion of our country. Mudryk became an ambassador of Ukraine across the world. I like very much that he went to the Premier League because it is the best league in the world, and also England supports Ukraine a lot. It is one of the best countries for that, which is very important for us. For the whole world and Ukraine, it is an important transfer. We have context in this transfer: American owners, England, Ukraine – this triangle. Today, we are as close as ever. It is an important point.

This time last year, Chelsea were owned by (Russian oligarch) Roman Abramovich. He faced sanctions from the British government before Chelsea were sold to the new ownership. Now the club is a very different place. Is that important as well?

I think yes, because if there was no new owner of Chelsea, there would be a lot of critics in respect of us, because of these kinds of connections.

Probably impossible (to make this deal in those circumstances)?

Maybe even impossible.

GO DEEPER

Mudryk deal a statement of intent and shows Chelsea owners are fully behind Potter

Great read to find out how they completed this deal.

[Fulham Broadway 17,315]

So Arsenal were tapping him up before they contacted the club - get what they deserve then

[Magic Lamps 11,692]

2 hours ago, Vesper said:

Exclusive: Why Mykhailo Mudryk joined Chelsea not Arsenal – by Shakhtar’s CEO

https://theathletic.com/4096686/2023/01/17/shakhtar-donetsk-ceo-why-mudryk-Chelsea-not-arsenal/

 

 

Big respect to Shaktar CEO Palkin for the honesty and transparency. You really seldom get answers this clear from football bosses. It is a bit reassuring that everyone Eghbali and Boehly talk to is apparently convinced by their project - at least as soon as they put the money on the table. I can totally see how this is a proud moment for Shaktar and Ukraine - can't wait for this friendly with Donetsk to take place.

[NikkiCFC 8,324]

Already my favorite player 😂

[robsblubot 3,595]

1 hour ago, NikkiCFC said:

Already my favorite player 😂

blasphemy! Harry Kane is the more competent diver IMHO 😆

[Simon1991 233]

On 16/01/2023 at 01:59, Jype said:

Yeah. If Mudryk was really adamant to join Arsenal a hijack would never have worked, just like it didn't with Raphinha last summer.

It's not like the window is about to end either, there's still more than half left and he could easily have stalled things a bit and wait to see if Arsenal would match our bid but cleraly he had already given us the green light once the offer went in. Credit to Boehly etc. as well that they have learned a thing or two since Raphinha to only make a bid once the player is already on board.

Still not fully convinced about the player being worth all that money and on the face of it the 8,5 year contract seems crazy too but without knowing the salary I can't really comment on the contract length much. If it's a reasonable wage, the long deal can be a good thing to help lower the amortisation costs but if it's something like +200K/wk then it's just not great business.

Looking forward to seeing what the guy can do in the PL.

Capology has him listed and verified at £100k/week, which is very reasonable. Relatively easy to offload he things go sour, and tied to a long deal at "low wages" if he turns into a superstar.

[NikkiCFC 8,324]

Yeah, I also saw from many sources that we double his Arsenal offer which was 50k so he is playing for 100k.

Edited January 18, 2023 by NikkiCFC

[MoroccanBlue 5,382]

15 hours ago, Simon1991 said:

Capology has him listed and verified at £100k/week, which is very reasonable. Relatively easy to offload he things go sour, and tied to a long deal at "low wages" if he turns into a superstar.

Probably a shit ton of bonuses in his contract that Boehly likes to do. 

[TheHulk 2,456]

 

[Fulham Broadway 17,315]

Chelsea's new £88m signing Mykhailo Mudryk looks focused as he trains with his new team-mates for the first time, and could be handed a chance to play on Saturday.

[NikkiCFC 8,324]

Why media always says 88m signing and not 62m? They know for sure we gonna win CL and PL soon?

[Pizy 18,914]

29 minutes ago, NikkiCFC said:

Why media always says 88m signing and not 62m? They know for sure we gonna win CL and PL soon?

Happens with every massive transfer for all the big clubs. Media love the huge overall number because it’s more sensational and flashy.

[Jype 6,398]

18 minutes ago, Pizy said:

Happens with every massive transfer for all the big clubs. Media love the huge overall number because it’s more sensational and flashy.

Nah, it really doesn't. Here's two headlines from the BBC for example:

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/61742358

"Darwin Nunez: Liverpool complete signing of Uruguay striker from Benfica for initial £64m"

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/64281139

"Mykhailo Mudryk: Chelsea sign Shakhtar Donetsk forward in £89m deal"

Going into the full article both do mention the existence of add-ons in the price but the reporting is very different when headline for the other it's initial £64M and for the other it's just £89M deal. 

 

edit: Let's add one more:

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/62718027

"Antony: Manchester United agree to sign Ajax winger for £81.3m"

Antony's deal includes £4.3M more in add-ons but the headline only mentions the initial price.

Edited January 18, 2023 by Jype

[Vesper 30,182]

Inside Chelsea’s Mudryk deal: A red-eye flight, Potter’s promise and £97,000 a week

https://theathletic.com/4093504/2023/01/18/inside-mudryk-deal-Chelsea-arsenal/

Mykhailo Mudryk was supposed to be the key mid-season addition to propel Arsenal to the title — a long-coveted forward who would add greater depth to Mikel Arteta’s options and fuel belief that a 19-year wait to be Premier League champions again is about to come to an end.

Instead, at half-time at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, the Ukraine international forward was paraded as a Chelsea player after signing a contract that could extend to 2031 and, far from breaking the bank, is worth £97,000 a week.

Here, The Athletic tells how Chelsea secured one of European football’s brightest young attacking talents from under the noses of their rivals across the capital, with details including:

• Mudryk might have joined Bayer Leverkusen last summer for as little as €20million
• Mikel Arteta, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Edu all spoke to Mudryk to try to get him to Arsenal
• Shakhtar Donetsk’s director of football attended Chelsea’s recent league loss to Manchester City
• The player’s relatively low Chelsea salary is part of a long-term strategy to bring down their overall wage bill

Chelsea may still wallow in mid-table going into Saturday’s game at fellow underachieving heavyweights Liverpool, but their collective mood has been lifted after pulling off one of the most spectacular coups of recent transfer windows.

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Just let this sink in for a second: Chelsea are paying Mudryk lower wages than Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ruben Loftus-Cheek.

Admittedly, the salary the Ukrainian will pick up at Stamford Bridge is bigger than that proposed by Arsenal, but not astronomically so. That may surprise those who assume the only reason Chelsea beat Arsenal to the signature of one of the most exciting young talents in Europe is they offered a significantly larger financial package. How else could a player who was posting pictures of himself on social media accounts watching Arsenal games in recent weeks instead end up moving to one of their biggest London rivals — a club who currently sit nine places and 19 points below them in the table?

Chelsea’s transfer business has come under plenty of scrutiny since the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital consortium completed their takeover at the end of last May. Should all the respective add-ons in their various deals be triggered, the total sum to which they have committed will exceed £400million ($490m).

But the acquisition of Mudryk for an initial €70million (£61.6m, $75.5m), with a further €30m potentially due in performance-related add-ons, is not about the size of the transfer fee. For starters, Arsenal offered the same amounts and split as Chelsea, albeit the speed at which the various instalments would be paid was markedly different on their bid.

Neither does it boil down to his salary. Mudryk will be earning around £97,000 a week at Chelsea. Arsenal had been speaking to him since October, according to Shakhtar’s chief executive Sergei Palkin, and their contract offer was within £10,000 per week of that eventually accepted across town. Such a relatively small disparity is hardly a deal breaker.

Earning over £5million a year until at least 2030 — the Ukraine international signed a seven-and-a-half-year contract with an option for another 12 months — is still a tidy sum and represents significantly more than he would have been making if he’d stayed at Shakhtar, and marginally more than at Arsenal.

But, in the context of the salaries commanded by other members of Chelsea’s senior squad, it is relatively low on the scale.

Raheem Sterling, admittedly an experienced international, is on over three times that figure.

Academy graduates Loftus-Cheek and Hudson-Odoi are not regulars in the team — the latter is currently on a season-long loan at Bayer Leverkusen — yet receive around £150,000 and £120,000 per week respectively. They are talented players, but the previous Chelsea regime sanctioned those vast sums when they had only a few first-team appearances under their belts.

What the Mudryk deal demonstrates is the new Chelsea co-owners’ long-term plan to try to transform the payroll — to bring in talent on wages deemed more reasonable by current Premier League standards, and not those lavished out during the previous Roman Abramovich era.

Eyebrows have been raised at the length of the contracts the Boehly-Clearlake consortium is handing out to players, and the one signed by Mudryk is the longest yet. But there is a logic to such a policy when it comes to the overall business. The books will carry the transfer fee over the length of the player’s contract. There is sense, too, in having a young player committed over his peak years at £5million a year rather than having to bring in an older free agent who demands double that amount. The policy does not preclude footballers from returning to the negotiating table seeking a pay rise after delivering a number of good seasons.

Others will point to the fact it was the new regime who handed Sterling, who turned 28 last month, his hefty salary back in July, or who gave the green light to Reece James’ pay leaping massively to around £250,000 a week when he signed a contract extension two months later.

But, despite the caveats, the overall intention is established.

The hope is the club’s wage bill will go down over time. A reasonable payroll will then give Chelsea more wriggle room on transfer fees.

Chelsea also see another upside to this.

One of the problems they have always confronted has been the ability to shift underperforming players whose wages make them so much harder to sell on. Should the worst-case scenario play out and Mudryk find life difficult at his new employers, the salary to which he will have grown accustomed would not price him out of the market.

Naturally, there is optimism at Chelsea that this will not be the case. There is also great satisfaction to be had in beating Arsenal to his signature having already signed another of the Premier League leaders’ transfer targets — Joao Felix — on loan from Atletico Madrid this month. The jubilant mood at their Cobham headquarters was exposed by posts on the club’s social media accounts over the weekend, before and after the deal was confirmed.

They are still celebrating the fact Mudryk headed to west London rather than its northern districts.

Rewind a few weeks and few would have thought that likely.

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Chelsea spotted an opportunity.

Just a fortnight ago, the sense within the game was that Arsenal were on the verge of formalising a long-mooted deal with Shakhtar to sign Mudryk as a mid-season fillip for their ongoing title challenge.

When former Shakhtar, Chelsea and Arsenal winger Willian went out for dinner with the Ukrainian club’s director of football Darijo Srna and ex-Arsenal and Shakhtar forward Eduardo da Silva in London that week, the conversation lingered for a while on Mudryk and how eager the league leaders were to secure the now 22-year-old.

And yet, just 24 hours later, Srna was pictured in a VIP box high up in the west stand at Chelsea’s home game against Manchester City on what happened to be Mudryk’s birthday. The Shakhtar official was in attendance as a guest of the host club but, earlier in the day, the future of the Ukrainians’ star player had been discussed with members of the Boehly-Clearlake ownership.

Those present crunched some numbers, for all that nothing formal was proposed. Chelsea’s opening offer, when it came, did not come close to that made by Arsenal, who remained the front runners to sign the player.

Darijo Srna was at Chelsea vs Manchester City two weeks ago

Mudryk had been a target for Arsenal since the summer, when they identified the need to bring in a wide forward after sanctioning Nicolas Pepe’s season-long loan to French club Nice. Their first choice had been Raphinha, and at one stage they had actually found themselves competing with Chelsea for the Leeds player, only for the Brazilian ultimately to prefer Barcelona.

They then turned their attention to Pedro Neto of Wolves, but that interest was eventually dropped after they deemed their fellow Premier League club’s valuation too high. Heading into the final few days of the summer window, Mudryk figured prominently in Arsenal’s thoughts, but injuries to Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny made them pivot towards trying to sign a central midfielder instead. Ultimately that, too, came to nothing.

At that time, the fee being suggested for Mudryk was significantly lower. Bayer Leverkusen of the German Bundesliga thought they had an agreement in place with Shakhtar and the player to sign him for as little as €20million. The goalposts only shifted once it became clear that there were other suitors in the market.

Brentford made a club-record offer of around €30million at the end of the summer window and, briefly, believed a deal was close. Everton and Newcastle were also showing significant interest.

One fact that may raise some alarm bells for Chelsea fans is that a rival Premier League club made some background calls about Mudryk and did not receive rave assessments of his character.

As it transpired, Mudryk was thrust more into the spotlight as FIFA, world football’s governing body, ruled that overseas players could unilaterally suspend their contracts with clubs in war-torn Ukraine, thereby effectively denying Shakhtar not only the services of the 14 foreigners on their books but also the opportunity to sell them.

They opted instead to develop a strategy to market homegrown winger Mudryk as their most valuable asset.

That task was made easier as he shone initially in the Champions League group stage, scoring as RB Leipzig were thumped 4-1 in Germany and then in home and away 1-1 draws with Scottish champions Celtic. He also impressed at home against reigning European champions Real Madrid in a 1-1 draw.

His work ethic off the field improved as well — he would regularly stay on after training for further practice, polishing his skill set. His band of suitors took note.

Arsenal were increasingly convinced he would be the perfect January acquisition for them — someone who could make an immediate impact to bolster this season’s surprise title push, perhaps as a match-winner off the bench, but also a figure who would become a key part of the project for years to come. They felt adding him to Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Jesus would give them one of the most exciting groups of attackers in Europe.

The club’s recruitment team, including sporting director Edu, stepped up their efforts to make a deal happen.

As Palkin told The Athletic: “Arsenal contacted the player almost one and a half months before they contacted us. Can you imagine, for example, to have (the manager) Mikel Arteta, (Arsenal’s Ukrainian player) Oleksandr Zinchenko and the sporting director calling you, to have Arsenal calling you almost every day, every two days, every three days? You can want or not want the move, but you follow this kind of reception and contacts.”

The Ukrainian club’s asking price had been established as €100million, but Arsenal were still confident a compromise could be struck for a lower fee.

Palkin confirmed he met Arsenal on more occasions than he did Chelsea. Arsenal made three offers in all, the final one coming last Thursday, which reached the €70million-plus-€30million threshold. But Shakhtar were unhappy with the schedule of the payments, and the achievements that would trigger the add-ons, proposed by Edu. The negotiations became tense, the talks increasingly challenging.

No agreement was struck.

In essence, Arsenal had given Chelsea something to beat and, crucially, the current world champions then took matters into their own hands.

Last Friday night, co-owner Behdad Eghbali and recently appointed director of global talent and transfers Paul Winstanley boarded a red-eye flight to Antalya in Turkey, where Shakhtar were holding a training camp during the Ukrainian season’s winter break. They arrived on Saturday morning with Shakhtar agreeing to a meeting at a hotel near their base in the seaside town of Belek.

Those face-to-face discussions were attended by Palkin, Srna, and also by Mudryk and his representatives.

It should be acknowledged that prior to those talks in Turkey, having spoken to both Arteta and the Chelsea head coach Graham Potter, Mudryk’s own priority had been securing a move to Arsenal. Yet, with Arsenal having since made clear how much they were prepared to pay and when, an offer Shakhtar had effectively knocked back, the player was now confronting a straight choice between staying at the Ukrainian club until the summer or joining Chelsea.

Step forward Egbhali and Winstanley to deliver their own sales pitch. Over eight to 10 hours of presentations and talks, they put forward Chelsea’s case.

It was stressed to Mudryk that Chelsea would provide him with a platform to excel. He would have a major role to play in the club’s new project as a key player in coach Potter’s team. Despite the squad at Stamford Bridge already having several players who operate in Mudryk’s favoured position off the left, Eghbali and Winstanley stressed how he would arguably face stiffer competition for game-time from 21-year-old Brazil international Martinelli if he chose to join Arsenal.

As well as their footballing arguments, Shakhtar were also impressed by Chelsea’s pastoral plan to bed in a player who has spent the past year playing against the backdrop of war in his homeland.

Palkin admits what Eghbali and Winstanley said made a huge impression on everyone in the room.

“When they explain to you the whole story and you look for the next two, three, four, five years, then you see they have a serious project,” Palkin added. “I believe they will build one of the best clubs in the world because I am telling you, they are very serious in all directions: sports science, the stadium side, the commercial side, on all things. For us, they looked very ambitious.”

Chelsea duly met Shakhtar’s €70million-plus-€30million demands too, with the Ukrainian club happier regarding the speed at which the instalments would be delivered. Those add-ons depend on Chelsea winning the Premier League and Champions League during Mudryk’s time at the club. Crucially, even with the team currently 10th in the table and 10 points outside the top four, Shakhtar felt this was a more realistic goal than what would be needed to trigger those in Arsenal’s package.

The club’s owner, Rinat Akhmetov, was not present in Turkey but he spoke to Chelsea’s representatives by telephone once a deal had been struck in principle.

If there had been an opportunity for Arsenal to make a counter-offer, it was passed up. They had indicated the structure of the deal they were prepared to strike and, for all that the talks had become strained, believed the ball still to be in Shakhtar’s court.

Fundamentally, what seems to have made the biggest difference was Chelsea’s more proactive approach. A source privy to the situation, who asked not to be named to protect their position, explained why they beat Arsenal to the signing: “Who was out there (in Turkey) and who was not out there?”

A pre-agreement was in place, and some initial paperwork got signed.

Eghbali, Winstanley, Mudryk and Srna then flew, all on the same plane, to London to complete the formalities, with the player undertaking his medical on Sunday.

Everything was finalised in time for Mudryk to attend the match at home to Crystal Palace that afternoon and be presented to the fans at half-time.

A very content Potter, who The Athletic revealed had pushed for the signing to be made and spoke to Mudryk as part of the process, detailed what he believes the player will bring to his side in the aftermath of that 1-0 victory. He will make him integral to his team.

“He’s a player with a big future,” he said. “He’s exciting one versus one, he’s very direct, he attacks the back line, can go into wide areas but also affects the goal; a really exciting player and I think our supporters will really like him.

“We want to do better. We want to play better, to get more points and wins. You need a squad that is balanced, that has the right amount of competition, and I think he brings that.”

The prospect of Mudryk making his debut against Liverpool in Saturday’s lunchtime game is enticing, but some level of realism is still required.

Until his breakthrough this season, he had scored just twice in 47 appearances for three different clubs in his homeland — including, ironically, a loan spell at Arsenal Kyiv in 2019 — and he has just eight senior caps with only four starts.

Expectations need to reflect the reality that he is a player of great potential, but one who is far from the finished article.

He has also not played in a competitive match since November 23, due to the winter break in his homeland, and will inevitably be short of match fitness. It will be some ask for him to play the full 90 minutes at Anfield.

But, while Arsenal lick their wounds and look elsewhere for targets in the remaining two weeks of the winter window, Chelsea can be optimistic that they have a new talent in their midst to help drive them towards better times over the second half of the season.

Additional reporting: David Ornstein and James McNicholas

 

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Already fans created a great song for him. 

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