Chelsea have reached an agreement with Shakhtar Donetsk over a January deal for winger Mykhailo Mudryk, according to Fabrizio Romano.
The Blues, who have just one win in their last nine matches, are clearly in a dire state at the moment and their extensive injury list is a big part of it.
Their attacking form, in particular, is concerning. To put it into perspective, they managed to score just two goals in the aforementioned nine games.
Graham Potter already has two new attackers; David Datro Fofana and loanee Joao Felix, at his disposal. However, the former is untested at the highest level, while Felix is only a short-term solution, at least for now.
With Christian Pulisic and Raheem Sterling out due to injuries for several weeks, Chelsea seem to intensify their pursuit of new wide attackers.
Recently, they reportedly submitted a bid for PSV Eindhoven’s Noni Madueke. Now, according to Romano, they made another concrete move for Mudryk.
He claims that Chelsea executives have arrived in Poland, where Shakhtar hold their training camp (Note: it was actually in Turkey), to try to beat Arsenal to a deal.
“Chelsea [are trying] to reach an agreement with Shakhtar and very advanced in talks over the fee of the [potential] deal,” the Italian journalist explained on his YouTube channel.
“[After that] Chelsea will focus on the player side.
“We know Arsenal are more than in advance [stage] because in the last few days, they made a third bid worth €70million (£62m) plus €25m (£22m) in add-ons.
“Then Chelsea arrived in [Turkey].
“But we know the player’s priority has always been Arsenal. He dreams of Arsenal.”
This is a risky approach by Chelsea as based on the report, they prioritise getting the green light from Shakhtar ahead of personal terms with the player.
As Romano also pointed out in the video, the Blues had the same strategy in their pursuit of former Leeds United winger Raphinha, who eventually joined Barcelona last summer. This could’ve ended in a similar fashion.
However, this may not be the case this time.
Mudryk heading to London for Chelsea talks
Just over an hour later, Romano adds that Mudryk was already on a plane to fly to London for a medical and to discuss details after Chelsea reached an agreement with Shakhtar over a deal worth close to €100m (£88.6m).
It is not done yet, apparently, but Chelsea reportedly hope to get it sealed this weekend.
As has been the case lately with Chelsea signings, the club are said to be offering the Ukraine international a long-term seven-and-a-half-year deal.
Obviously, Arsenal are located in London, too. So, there could be more twists to this tale.
Update: Shakhtar confirmed Saturday’s meeting with Chelsea board and the transfer agreement.
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