Chelsea are close to hijacking Arsenal’s move for Mykhailo Mudryk after agreeing a €100m fee for the winger with Shakhtar Donetsk.
Arsenal had been hopeful of strengthening their title bid by signing Mudryk, but Chelsea have moved swiftly to gazump their London rivals. The Stamford Bridge club have scheduled a medical for the 22-year-old on Sunday and are confident they will sign him.
Chelsea have agreed to pay €70m, plus €30m in add-ons for Mudryk, who is open to the move despite repeatedly indicating that he favoured a move to Arsenal. Negotiations with Shakhtar have gone well and Chelsea officials have flown to Turkey to hold final talks with the Ukrainian club. It is understood that those discussions merely centre around the size of some extra add-ons for Mudryk, whose pace and technical ability has caught the eye in the Champions League this season.
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Arsenal have been confident of landing Mudryk for an eventual fee of £80m. However, Chelsea have refused to go away and remain hopeful of disrupting Arsenal’s move for the 22-year-old Ukraine international. The west Londoners have refused to be put off by Mudryk making it clear that he wants to join Arsenal.
Chelsea, who host Crystal Palace on Sunday, are 10th in the Premier League after winning only one of their last nine league games. The pressure on Graham Potter increased when his team lost 2-1 to Fulham on Thursday.
However, there is still firm backing for Potter, who will be without 11 players against Palace because of injury and suspension. Chelsea, who are also in talks with PSV Eindhoven over a deal for the winger Noni Madueke, want to support him with signings. They signed João Félix on loan this week and have already added Benoît Badiashile, David Datro Fofana and Andrey Santos this window.
Chelsea are in the market for a central midfielder – they have looked at Benfica’s Enzo Fernández and the Brighton duo of Alexis Mac Allister and Moisés Caicedo – and are interested in the Borussia Mönchengladbach forward Marcus Thuram, who is out of contract in the summer.
It can also be revealed that the injury crisis in attack even led Chelsea to enquire about signing the West Ham forward Michail Antonio on a cheap loan. The offer was rejected as West Ham do not want to loan Antonio out. They are, however, open to selling the forward, who has interest from Wolves.
