It had seemed as though it was a matter of time before Mykhaylo Mudryk would become an Arsenal player. For one thing the player's social media activity had indicated that he was clearly in favour of a switch to North London. There were few concerns over personal terms.
The stumbling block instead came from dealings with Shakhtar Donetsk. The Ukrainian side are notoriously tough negotiators, and made it clear from the outset that they wanted a fee of around £88 million for the 22-year-old. There were a number of reasons for this.
Firstly, Shakhtar have lost many of their star foreign players for next to nothing in the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Their club business model is in part built on being able to sell these players for sizeable profits, and with that in mind extracting a high fee for perhaps their most valuable homegrown talent ever became paramount.
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On top of that, Shakhtar are not nailed on to qualify for the Champions League as things stand. Losing a player of Mudryk's quality would jeopardise the potential financial benefits that come from being in Europe's top-tier competition, so Shakhtar were keen to offset that with any sale.
Despite that though, talks were thought to be progressing well. Arsenal went in with an original bid that was around £55million in late December, but this was thought to be just in order kick negotiations off. Since then the Gunners have been in talks with Shakhtar, and as recently as Friday there was confidence that they were getting close to a deal.
Then on Saturday came the late bid from Chelsea. It is thought that this is in the region of the original £88million Shakhtar were asking for, including possible add-ons.. Arsenal have consistently stated that they will not be dragged into a bidding war and are unlikely to go that high.
While it would undoubtedly be a disappointment for the Gunners to miss out on Mudryk, their unwillingness to overpay for new players is consistent with club policy over the past few windows.
In the summer they were in talks to sign Lisandro Martinez from Ajax but chose to walk away when the price became what was deemed unreasonable. During this window Arsenal also showed an interest in Joao Felix, but it is understood that the club walked away from negotiations immediately when Atletico Madrid quoted a loan fee believed to be in the region of £9.7million, on top of his high wages.
The Gunners have consistently shown that they will not be held to ransom when looking to buy players, and the willingness to walk away is a key card to play in any negotiations.
After several costly mistakes in their recent past - some of which they are still paying for today - Edu is keen to operate shrewdly in the transfer market. They have shown this in the past couple of windows and are keen to do so again when it comes to the Mudryk deal.
There are many who will argue that with a five-point lead at the top of the Premier League, Arsenal should look to break the bank and kick on by signing a player of Mudryk's quality.
While he would be an undoubtedly impressive addition, it's worth remembering that the Gunners are in the midst of a long-term project at the Emirates. Jeopardising that with short-term decisions is something they are wary of.
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