grange
Losing my brain cells 🥸
Country: USA
Player:Havertz
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.
I'mma just say it even though people probably won't like it, but I reckon if Edu spent more time talking to the club directly instead of the player they would have landed their man. That's my main take away from this.
A bunch of fluff about being impressed over their sports science and winning the PL while they're sitting in 10th?
Sounds like a clown show. I'm glad we missed out on him.
